Again, not a full review because this is the fourth in a seven-book series, so you shouldn't start with this one and (if you're enjoying them) you shouldn't end with this one.

For the most part, I continue to enjoy these books. But every fantasy series longer than a trilogy seems to experience a slump by book four or five – the books grow longer, yet move more slowly – and Crown of Stars is not proving an exception to that rule.There’s a lot going on here, and the plotlines dealing with the Quman invaders and King Henry’s foray into Aosta to claim the imperial crown are enjoyable. Elliott continues to resolve plotlines and take them in new directions, and the end of t...

Book four of Crown of Stars follows the usual practice of giving time to four major plot threads. The new major character this time is Adica, the Hollowed One of a tribe that is part of an effort to cast a truly earth-shattering spell.Instead of this being a completely separate plot with no real tie in to the regular major cast, it is tied directly to Alain, who has been thrown 2,700 years into the past, and finds peace in a troubled little paradise. This is a big case of showing exactly what we...

While I love long and involved fantasy, for Kate Elliott's abilities, this book is MUCH TOO LONG. She's at her strongest with plotting and introducing completely unpredictable and interesting twists to the story. Unfortunately, those things come all at once only for a person to have to plod through the predominantly boring portions of the story.Yeah, I'm a glutton for punishment and must know how some story lines from this book tie up in the next one. But all in all, I wouldn't recommend this se...

UPDATE: I read where Kate Elliott said that the inspiration for Adica was the Egtved Girl, and I love this detail. Best volume of the series so far, in my opinion. But it is loooonnng. Each book has gotten progressively longer and I really felt it here. Fortunately, I enjoyed most every bit of it. There was only a little bit of drag in the middle, during Alain and Adica's extended journey. This book stands out for fully presenting at least two major character arcs: Adica's entire story (a new ch...

“I see your crown, brighter than the stars. You have wandered off the path meant for you, and you must return.”Third book is normally where most of the series end or at least slow down in a preparation for a grand finale. In the Crown of Stars the mere warmup had finished and now we are down to business. This time we are taken beyond the borders of the war-torn kingdom of Wendar. War and magic separated our heroes and pushed them onto various paths. Generally, war is everywhere: mainly in the so...

I read these a while ago and was one of best sets I read so far, so anticipating all the way through all 7 books omg such good set I wished they never end, one of those where you finish and think "NOW WHAT?! :(" AWESOME!

A rich and vibrant world, fascinating peoples, creatures, histories, religions, magics, and wonderfully nuanced characters... I'm loving this series, even as I'm wishing for a faster pace. It's truly epic and detailed in its sprawl, which at times means it drags. I'm realizing that I have to take breaks in my reading so I can continue to enjoy the world without growing too impatient. When I start willing it to go faster, I take a break and read something else. Then at other times, I fail to noti...

I really, really enjoyed this book.I had been frustrated with Liath's character trajectory in the previous book, but I knew that any flaws written were deliberate. Liath had yet to be in a situation where she was allowed to grow. In this book, she gets that opportunity and seizes it.Alain's story is more of an interlude. He finally has an opportunity to live the life he wants. Unfortunately, the reader knows from the get-go that it cannot last.Hanna and Rosvita continue to be wonderful POVs.Hone...

I don't know how, but Elliott's Crown of Stars series just keeps getting better and better. At this point, the pacing is tight (with brief pauses for the Eika, who I no longer care about), the stakes are amazingly high, the world is beautifully crafted and I can't wait to find out what's next.And I'm not sure if it's really a 5-star book for me, but I cried a lot, so there you go. And small spoilers: (view spoiler)[Usually I really hate those women holy suicides, but the way Elliott wrote it rea...

Coming to the mid-series sag. I actually did skim Alain's whole time travel plot. Liath's sojourn into the spheres should have taken fifty pages, not five hundred. Sanglant and Hanna get the most interesting stuff going on here: Sanglant has the real bread and butter of the book, going hard with the political maneuvering. We also now begin to get into the whole like, Talleifer inheritance bullshit, which. Whatever!! I don't care!

With Crown of Stars it seems I’m either 100% engaged and loving it, or bored to tears, and my engagement seems to waffle back and forth pretty frequently. I think the big reason this book had me losing focus was because the two main characters spent pretty much the whole book, not only in completely different locales, but also completely new locales almost entirely separated from every other character we’ve met so far in the series. I didn’t mind Alain’s time travel adventures, on their own they...

I'm only partway through this one, but so far: too much magic. Dragons, mermen, lion people, spirit quests all over the damn place. It's hard to keep it all straight. I have no problem with magic, but it just feels like so much is packed in that it crowds out plot.I desperately wish the editor had limited Liath's spirit quest to 1 or 2 chapters instead of the whole book. It's the same thing only slightly different over and over and over. It's like Groundhog Day. And while they were at it, they s...

But seriously, WHY is this not a GOT-type miniseries. For that matter, how did that get picked up and not this. This series has everything. Everything! Evil elves! Technologically-advanced goblins! The music of the spheres! Heresy! Dragon-Vikings! Betrayal by the gods! Fake miracles! Real miracles! Insta-love! Books! Sieges! Time travel! Griffons! AWESOME BATTLES! Magic hounds! Weaponized gossip! Really good-looking bad guys! Torture! Escapes! Betrayal by your friends! Matriarchy! Fresos! Blood

Boy this book is a brick! At over 1,000 pages there is way too much going on here to be able to talk about all of it so I will try to focus on the main points. First off as you might have guessed this book is too damn long, there is so much drag in the middle that I really struggled to stay engaged. Rarely have I read a book series that has covered as much in story time as this one has, and I get that the author must have felt like there was so much content to shove in. With that said I did feel...

So this book took me literal months to read, partly because my kindle broke when I was in the middle of it. This derailed me severely! I had spent the night reading it and then, in the morning, it just didn't work anymore. Anyrate, this caused me to not read it for a few months and then very slowly get back into it.But! I think this might be my favorite of these novels. It still has some issues, though I think my problems with the worldbuilding are becoming more nuanced. Or rather, my issues are...

I really like this series and Elliott is an exceptional writer of fantasy, but by Book 4 this is becoming a huge slog. The story is so drawn out and often it is so long before we return to a specific storyline - at times I forgot different character's stories and what had happened in previous chapters.It's a shame as I was gripped by the first two books, it just seems like some serious editing needed to go on here, and I'm not adverse to reading big fantasy series, but I do like well paced page

This book is going realllllly slowly. I"m on page 350 or so, and it's just not pulling me in the way the earlier books in this series did. Dare I say it? There are too many different things going on. I am having a hard time even following what is happening, largely because I am trying to skim through to the next important plot point in order to by pass all the stuff that seems to belong in a totally different book. After two hundred pages of this, I am (finally) starting to see that all the disp...

Possibly my favorite of this series so far, though that probably means little since each one I read becomes my new favorite... What made this book so great was the fact that SO many major plot points and details of the entire series were revealed bit by bit. Child of Flame was packed with "Oh!" moments, and all the best aspects of a book that make you verbalize your feelings no matter where you are. When I finished this one, despite the horrid pain in my neck and shoulders (and eyes) from readin...

Well, this is more like it! The pace picks up as all the characters are set in place for the coming battle. Much is resolved, though there is still much to get through for many of the characters. Liath and Sanglant’s stories are both in the forefront, and I love that both have had their eyes opened and, hopefully, will now find their way back to each other. Equally fascinating was Alain’s story, as, thrust into the past, he, and we, learn, at least in part, how things came to be, and why the dif...