The Traitor: Book Three of the Covenant of Steel

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Yet Evadine is not the woman Alwyn once knew. As puritanical fury increasingly replaces her benevolent faith, Alwyn begins to question what her true motives really are. As the kingdom braces itself for one final battle, Alwyn’s conscience fights its own war with his heart. Now, more than ever, he must decide whose side he’s really on. Anthony Ryan excels at crafting fully fleshed characters, whether they are likeable or villainous, or somewhere in between. I missed one particular character from the first book, but maybe she’ll make a reappearance in the final instalment. Besides Alwyn, Lilat might be my second favourite character. Evadine is not a likeable character per se, but it is intriguing to read how different people react to her. Anthony Ryan is a famous author from The United Kingdom who likes to write novels based on the History, Science Fiction, and Fantasy genres along with Graphic novels. He was born in the year 1970 in Scotland and has spent most of his growing days in London. He has lived and worked in London his entire life. Anthony used to work for the British Civil Service, a job that has given him a long career, different from being an author. Anthony Ryan is particularly known for his Raven’s Shadow series, which consists of three very interesting novels. After the success of his first novel in the series, he took up writing as a full time career. As of today, Anthony devotes most of his time in writing different categories of novels throughout the day. My huge thanks to Orbit via NetGalley for giving me a chance to read The Traitor, Book Three of the Covenant of Steel by Anthony Ryan. I have given my honest review.

Female characters, especially Lorine and Lorraine, were great and I felt like Ryan did a very good job with bringing more depth to them. When it comes to Evadine, though, she remains the most detached character, more the object of worship than the person and one I think was kind of left surface-level. We got a conclusion to the story and and an explanation, but, in a sense, it's a perfect Alwyn explanation and he is too good at saving his hind to be considered a perfectly reliable narrator and too skilled of a storyteller not to leave us intrigued. :) There’s a handy summary of the events from the first book, plus a character list to help refresh the reader’s memory. The Pariah and The Martyr were so good, I expect most readers who’ve finished the first two to read The Traitor.The answer is, yes, it did. The ending was excellent. The story was unexpected. Tense. Magical. Dark. Ryan’s characterisation of his protagonists has always captured my attention and taken him to a whole new level in the fantasy genre. If you pay careful attention, you may see the patterns Ryan weaves with his other stories and books. Mayhap you’ll notice past histories, or future possibilities. What would it be like if David Gemmell wrote Crime and Punishment on a dark realism theme?! I may have an Idea!

As the kingdom braces itself for one final battle, Alwyn's conscience fights its own war with his heart. Now, more than ever, he must decide whose side he's really on.That means that Alwyn's gift for gab didn't render you blind to his shortcomings nor made t(his) story a heroic one. With thoughtful characterization and an innovative variation on a familiar theme, this impressive horror tale wows.” — Publishers Weekly Starred Review

Would there be any point to it, if I did?” I asked her. “For I fancy hating you would be like hating the rain or the wind. You simply are.” And another layer of that is the fact Alwyn is recounting and thus many things are clearer to him in hindsight and foreshadow his main conflict from this book. I was waiting for so long for Alwyn's shift,and when it finally happened, it turned into a straight-forward epic fantasy quest with a singular goal, a soap-opera addition to the story and some fine battle scenes and magical shenanigans.Most of these political and military matters are standard fare, very well plotted but still not very original, except for the already mentioned narrowed focus on one lead character. The fantasy stuff comes into play with a visit to the southern neighbours of the kingdom of Albermaine. Behind an almost impregnable mountainous range live the Caerith, a sort of gipsy wanderers who are hunted down as witches inside Albermaine, but who also have psychic powers of unusual strength. Wary of strangers, the Caerith usually kill visitors as the find them, but Alwyn has had previous dealings with them. When he falls down the wrong side of the mountains and gets to visit the Caerith Wastes, Alwyn tries to learn something about the mysterious book from the first volume that appears to predict the future. Anthony Ryan's epic and sprawling continuation of his superb analog-medieval fantasy is sprinkled throughout with court intrigue and very good battle scenes.