An ending, of a sort. Stormed Fortress brings to culmination a long arc of storytelling that is nearly unrivaled in the annals of epic fantasy literature. This Eighth book in The Wars of Light and Shadow, and Fifth book in The Alliance of Light story arc, ends with a bang. Really, this could be an ending to the series if it weren’t for certain things purposely and cleverly left open for the final three books to come. This massive chunk of novel really delivers the excitement while maintaining the wonder and mystery of such a fantastic undertaking. There were some great surprises in this volume that outshine its predecessors. The previous two volumes, while beautiful in prose and woven with intensity, felt somewhat expected and safe compared to this one. The danger within felt more real and immediate.
As elicited by the title, a long and great siege is taking place in this book. The workings of this siege hinder the machinations of all sides and bring horrific warfare and sorcery down upon the inhabitants of the city fortress of Alestron. Not much can be said about a book this far into a series without giving things away, but if your at all familiar with the premise of this series, than it is safe to say that our erstwhile half-brother antagonists are involved.
This book does a particularly great job of granting the reader greater insight into magic and the workings of such on the world of Athera. There are a lot of long awaited answers given that are rewarding to the long time reader. Threads you may have questioned in previous volumes come to fruition. Characters you may not have cared about originally take on sudden relevance that corroborate their original introduction. Whenever a magical creature or magic in general is introduced into the story, it is always a significant event that has important ramifications both immediately and down the road. Magic is not a sideshow in these books, and it is not extrinsic. It is built into the very nature of the world and its inhabitants. Wurts’ unique take on such a vital aspect to epic fantasy is extremely noteworthy.
Stormed Fortress has easily moved near the top of my favorites pile in my personal rankings for this series. If you’ve made it up to this point, you’re in for a real treat.
