3.75 stars. Read as an audiobook.

While this was still a good book and a very satisfying ending to the Fionavar tapestry, it is (I think) the weakest link in the series.

That being said it is still a good book. There is an epic final battle that keeps you on the edge of your seat. I legitimately cried at some of the deaths, but felt like every characters ending fit perfectly.

The weakness is in the beginning of the book, it took a while for the story to pick up for me again.

Some of the Tolkien tributes hit you in the face pretty hard, but I thoroughly recommend this series to any fantasy lover.

Pretty good. But a bit too much like a sappy romance novel to receive full marks.

Okay, so everyone else pretending to be Tolkienesque had better queue up behind Kay because he sets the bar HIGH, my friends.
Not that I would expect less from someone who worked on turning the Silmarillion into something publishable, but still.
The thing is, Kay does with the Celtic mythology of what is now the UK more or less what Tolkien does with Anglo/Germanic mythology. They are both, in their own way, turning their own mythologies into a greater narrative past. They're also both invested in telling the story of the last stand of the light against the dark (I suddenly want to reread Susan Cooper. Weird.) and what that looks like and what sacrifices do (and do not) get made and it's also REALLY interesting to see how the difference in source material changes the fulcrum on which the world turns. There's a conversation to be had about the difference between mercy and sacrifice and I have to think harder about it.
But they're also very different books with a very different fellowship at the heart and that, as they say, makes all the difference.

This just became one of my favorite trilogies of all time.

Seemed like a Tolkien Spin-off to an extant

4.5 stars

This trilogy got stronger and stronger with each book. While high fantasy might not be my favorite subset of this genre, I was impressed with Kay's ability to develop and make so many characters relevant and interesting. Each had distinct roles to play in the fight against the evil Rakoth Maugrim. Dwarves, Gods and Goddesses, a unicorn!, the Pareiko, Daniloth people, the Lios Alfar (children of the light), the Wolflord Galadan, the Dalrei (people of the plain), and the Mages and Sources were my favorites to read. I was even more surprised when Kay had Arthur and Lancelot join the battle. He was certainly ambitious but pulled together all of these threads quite amazingly. The end is very fast paced with one of the most epic battle showdowns between Good and Evil forces that I have ever read.

I believe I mentioned this in another book review for this series, but it bears repeating! It was quite refreshing to read about groups that were true allies, putting aside all other agendas to save a common way of life for the entire kingdom.

Sounds silly that this should feel like a novel idea. However, in light of today's political climate, there are so many divisions and ulterior motives when aid is provided that it rarely feels guided by pure intentions. I realize this has been part of human nature from the beginning, but that's why I appreciated this read so much. The enemies were also distinct and easily identified.

Great exploration into price of leadership, how war changes society, and the depths of courage. Recommend to any High Fantasy lovers who want an epic Good vs. Evil read with characters galore:-)

I don't know that I have a lot to say, now that I've finished this trilogy. To echo what Kay himself says in the afterword of this edition, I kind of just want to let the books speak for themselves. I have some things to say, but most should be experienced firsthand, I think, so I won't say much.

As I expected, this trilogy did become more epic as it went on, culminating, of course, in that ubiquitous-to-fantasy climactic battle between good and evil. It got epic, but it stayed personal as well. Each personal story was woven so skillfully around each other and around the overarching story that it was truly a joy to read, even as I cried at certain deaths.

I do have to go back to that afterword, though, as it made me respect Kay even more. In the afterword, he talks about how he's often been encouraged to write a fourth book in this series, and I have to intensely respect him for not doing so. Here's a man who not only writes a beautiful epic, but he takes up fewer than 1000 pages to do so, and cuts no corners to do so. Furthermore, despite an obvious audience for more, he respects his own story and characters enough to know that it's done, and doesn't feel it necessary to tack on some lame addendum, just to, basically, make more money off it. At the end of his afterword, he thanks his readers, but I feel I must thank him. As I mentioned in my review of book 1, this is a story that is simple and complex all at the same time, and is truly beautiful. Anything more I say would only take away from it.

I adored The Wandering Fire, and nothing was going to make me really dislike its sequel. That being said, I didn’t enjoy The Darkest Road quite as much as the first two. The pace was meandering, particularly when the same event was recorded from 2-3 other points-of-view. Relationships are at the core of this series, and I always enjoy a book that invests in them; nevertheless, in the final chapters leading to the climax of an epic fantasy trilogy, I would have liked to feel an increase in tension, a hurrying onward, rather than stopping to check in on each and every character.

Perhaps the series should have been four books? There are so many characters here, and while GGK does his best to give them all an equal place in the narrative, a fourth book would have allowed him to give some of the side characters more room to impact the narrative and reduce that feeling of crowding.

Nevertheless, the climactic sequence was just what I wanted.

I cried at the deaths of Diarmuid, Darien, and Finn. The death of the unkillable god felt earned--neither a contrivance, nor too easy.

I suspect this series will only improve with each re-read, and I’m glad I chose to invest in my own copies.

4 stars.

This was a wonderful conclusion to the trilogy. In this series 5 people from 'our' world travel to Fionavar the first world. They think initially that it is to be part of a celebration but soon discover that they are called to play a part in the upcoming war. As the series unfolds and we arrive at the third book it is discovered that Maugrim has an overwhelming force to confront the force of Light. The travelers must pursue their destined paths to try and set the wheels in motion for victory against long odds.

The series has drawn upon many fantasy fan favorites like Tolkien, Arthurian legend and general mythology to build a beautiful world. It is a well written series and recommended for all fantasy fans.