Book Report: "Magic's Price"

You want the emo? YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE EMO!!!!

The final book in this trilogy was flawed, but still a satisfying conclusion to Vanyel's story.

We get a lot of wrap-ups in the first half of the book -- Vanyel and his family, Vanyel's unresolved feelings for Tylendel, etc. But Van, at this point, is drifting into "Mary Sue" territory -- he's beautiful, powerful, charmingly angsty, temperamental, loved by all, and the father of everyone's children (but still homosexual). Is all of that really necessary?

And Stefan is a much-needed change from the "we are soooo weighted down with all our responsibilities" main characters -- his relentless pursuit of Van is fun and charming.

I so could have done without the "reincarnation" sub-plot, though -- it was pointless and made Stefan somehow ... less of a person. Bah.

Oh, yeah, there was a plot, right? Someone's killing Valdemar's Herald-Mages. This is bad -- it's even worse because the non-Mage Heralds are being looked down upon by a populace that's been raised on the many songs about how wonderful and how marvelous and how powerful Vanyel is.

After the death of one of my favorite characters in the series (I saw it coming but it still hit hard -- it was a well-done scene) Van goes on the warpath.

And because he can't do anything halfway, he goes all blacker-than-black, everything must die emo. Carnage ensues.

One of the biggest problems of this book was the villain. No motivation, no characterization, just "ooh, I'm eeeeeeevvvvvviiiiiill!!!! BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA!" No explanations about why he hates the Heralds or is Van's mirror opposite -- he just is. I've seen better thought-out characters running past my corrupter in City of Villains.

So yeah, seriously flawed. But a memorable, bittersweet ending redeemed Van, and with him, the series. I'll miss the emo bastard. ;-)