They were instruments in a divine order. Now, the order is unraveling...

Idd thought he understood the cost of failure. He was wrong. Now he must return to the place where gods are made, carrying questions that should never be asked.

Korthe has spent a lifetime cutting through certainties. Her next target defies possibility: a Moon-God who should be untouchable. But the Dagger whispers that impossibility is negotiable.

Their paths converge at winter's throne. One carries questions. One carries a blade. One seeks understanding. One seeks an ending. Neither will find what they're looking for.

What remains when divinity bleeds?

Not all questions have answers. Some answers demand you return to the beginning.

Another great delivery by E. P. Soulless. After the explosive ending of the second book, I was eager to dive into this one and jumped into it as soon as I could get my hands on the book.

Hope was an indulgence for people who were too stupid to believe in miracles.

This review is for the third book, which builds upon the ones before. Consider starting here if you are new to the series.

Unsurprisingly, Idd and Korthe remain distinctively impressive as characters, and their journey grim and harrowing. I loved all the chapters that focused on them. Loved all the action-packed episodes, and the final confrontation with the moon god was an absolutely wonderful ending. I am also glad to be informed that subsequent books in this nine-book series will continue to focus on them.

An abyss where warmth had been excised so completely that even the memory of it felt obscene.

Compared to the previous books, in this one the author seems to lean a bit more heavily into philosophical elements. Some of it I enjoyed, partly because it was threaded with some really creative prose. Some of it I skimmed over, as my mind kept wandering back to the continuation of the plot.

Frost had claimed him completely. Not violently, but with the patient certainty of entropy.

The book starts off promising in the chaotic aftermath of the second book. Idd freezing over the whole damn sky was just astounding. But after that it fizzles out a bit as Korthe’s and Idd’s journeys unexpectedly diverge again and is followed by a sequence of things that baffled me.

Her hand had been warm when he grabbed it. It had been ice when he let go.

The focus drifts away into myriad explorations of the realms from other perspectives. Some of these were quite enjoyable - I absolutely loved The Land of Milk & Honey, even though it was something that just emerged out of the blue utterly randomly. Few others I found borderline interesting, like the whole Gus interlude. But the way they were clustered early into the book felt like a somewhat odd choice.

The annals-style plot delivery mechanism is not quite working out for me. Perhaps if you have enjoyed the books the author has listed as comps this will be a non-issue for you.

When the focus does shift back to Idd and Korthe, I found myself immersed and invested in the story once more, however I did end up wondering if maybe more could be done to make the events leading up to Korthe’s confrontation with Vak more interesting.

Choice is how guilt dresses itself.

Having said that, I loved the style of presentation throughout. I think the way E. P. Soulless blends together deep ideas with casual witticism is one of the key strengths of this series, and that aspect shines through in this book even better than the ones before.

I also loved the depictions of suffering and pain, and this series continues to be among my favorite grimdark stories.

Now if only I could figure out what the f*** was exactly going on with that bird…