The Autumn Republic, Brian McClellan

Publishers: Orbit

Pages: 577

Main Characters:

Tamas, Taniel, Adamat, Nila.

After absolutely flying through The Crimson Campaign I was extremely excited to start The Autumn Republic. I thought McClellan left the threads of each individual character perfectly placed at the end of The Crimson Campaign to make this final book in the series incredibly epic! Tamas was on his way back to his soldiers with sixty thousand new men. Taniel had escaped his captures and looked ready to enact revenge on the Kez, and Adamat was prepared to go behind enemy lines to find his kidnapped son.

It saddens me to say that though I was excited to read The Autumn Republic, it left me feeling underwhelmed and a little disappointed. These stories never seemed to materialise at all. Much of the first half of the book was devoted to characters such as Nila, Vlora and Olem and I felt that the main plots for the three leading characters were almost rushed, as they seemed to be concluded so quickly. In addition, as the start of the book was so heavily focused on it; I became invested in Nila’s story. But then the novel then seemed to trail away from her tale and onto something else (Lord Claremonte) and again, only rounded up her story quickly at the end of the book. It almost felt like McClellan wedged in the problem with Lord Claremonte without considering how he could properly round up everyone else’s plots from The Crimson Campaign. And though I did like that the author added a new antagonist, I thought that the big reveal surrounding him was a little too obvious, making me want to read on past Adamant’s detective work around Claremonte until the big fight scene at the end.

However, though I have painted a bleak picture of the book there was some parts that I really liked. Firstly, I still love the world McClellan has created and feel he has left the ending open to expand on that world with new characters. Plus, I did enjoy the events in the book but they didn’t turn out how I expected them to be. If this was a stand-alone novel I would definitely give it five stars, but with the build up from The Promise of Blood and The Crimson Campaign I expected more from McClellan in this final novel.

To conclude, this was an enjoyable read but was a little underwhelming. If you’re a fantasy fan you must read this trilogy though, it’s one of the best!

For author’s official website click here.