Review: The Bloody Throne (Hostage of Empire #3) by S.C. Emmett

 

The Bloody Throne (Hostage of Empire #3) by S.C. Emmett 

Publication Date: March 29, 2022

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This conclusion to the Hostage of Empire trilogy certainly lives up to its title. From bloody battlefields to quiet tea-tables, all and sundry battle for power in and beyond mighty Zhaon-An, and let's just say the knives are *very* much out. I don't think it's too spoilery to say that not everyone makes it out alive.

It's difficult to review the final book in a trilogy with any real specificity without falling into spoiler-land, and as with all trilogies, no reader should begin with this installment. We pick up with the fallout of certain events at the end of the previous book, as the Tabrak invasion reaches its inevitably bloody climax, Komor Yala's love . . . quadrangle? (Is that right?) Well, *that* plays out in ways both expected and unexpected. And we get some new POVs (in addition to our current plethora) which add texture and nuance to the events we saw in the previous two books.

But on that note: for a trilogy as long and complex as this one, I was surprised at how . . . rushed? certain things felt. I wish we'd spent much more time in Shan, for example, dealing with their court politics. The Tabrak, too, finally get a couple of POVs here, and I found myself thinking that they probably should have appeared in book 1, or at least book 2; it felt, again, *rushed* to finally see the enemy here, rather than let that part of the storyline breathe a bit more. And certain characters' endings felt like they needed extra chapters to really play out properly, which is kind of insane given how long this book already was.  

Did I ultimately find the ending satisfying? That's a difficult question. I gave this four stars because, like its predecessors, it has all the backbiting and scheming a court politics junkie could desire. And the overwhelming majority of the book I adored. But like I said, some characters' endings seemed a bit . . . abrupt. And . . . without being too spoilery, there's a development right at the end that would've had me throwing my book across the room had I been reading a paper book rather than on an expensive piece of machinery. Two characters get an ending that I was clearly supposed to find satisfying, that I was clearly supposed to root for, but which I felt was out of character for both. (And this probably goes to the rushed pacing; there were hints we were going down this path, but they were so few and so late that they didn't feel like enough to counterweigh all the character development prior that rendered this ending, I thought, out of character.) 

But that's ultimately a personal preference, and I can see how others might disagree. Overall, if you enjoy your fantasy heavy on the court politics, I'd say this trilogy is absolutely for you.

I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.