This is the third and final book in The Winnowing Flame Trilogy, which is a multiple perspective epic fantasy story. It picks up soon after the events of the second book, The Bitter Twins and follows the characters from the first two books. As this is the final book in the trilogy, I will not be going into details on the plot to avoid spoilers. I can say it was one of my most anticipated book releases of this year!
Summary
Ebora was once a glorious city, defended by legendary warriors and celebrated in song. Now refugees from every corner of Sarn seek shelter within its crumbling walls, and the enemy that has poisoned their land won’t lie dormant for long.
The deep-rooted connection that Tormalin, Noon and the scholar Vintage share with their Eboran war-beasts has kept them alive so far. But with Tor distracted, and his sister Hestillion hell-bent on bringing ruthless order to the next Jure’lia attack, the people of Sarn need all the help they can get.
Noon is no stranger to playing with fire and knows just where to recruit a new—and powerful—army. But even she underestimates the epic quest that is to come. It is a journey wrought with pain and sacrifice—a reckoning that will change the face of Sarn forever.
Thoughts
After loving the first two books I had high hopes for this instalment, and The Poison Song didn’t disappoint.
The story starts quite fast paced and drops you straight back into the world and the action. Then the chapters following slow a bit, but Williams did a good job at maintaining a good pace throughout the book. The slower times were perfect moments for character and relationship development. I enjoyed the direction of the plot and Williams managed to pull off a few twists and turns. However, there were also elements of the plot that were a little predictable.
Once again, the world is vividly written, and it was great to be able to explore more of it. The worldbuilding is one of my favourite things about this trilogy and The Poison Song continued to build on what we knew from the first two books. I hope Williams has plans to write in this world again, because I would love to see more of it.
One of the main strengths of this trilogy is the characters and so it was great to be back with them. Over the course of the first two books you come to really care about them, and Williams has done a good job concluding their story arcs. The characters are at the heart of the story, so if you enjoy character driven fantasy then I highly recommend checking this trilogy out. All of them are well written, and I love the interactions between them all.
Like its predecessors, The Poison Song follows multiple perspectives, each of which is as compelling as the last. I definitely had my favourite perspectives, but I still enjoyed them all and I didn’t find the switches jarring. For me, Noon, Tor and Vintage were the most compelling. One slight issue I had was the introduction of one particular character introduced in Noon’s chapters. And while they do add quite a lot to the story, it felt a little jarring to suddenly be introduced to someone new character.
While I did really enjoy this book, I thought the ending happened a little too quickly. There is such a big build up throughout the trilogy but it’s all wrapped up too quickly and neatly in my opinion. Elements of the story and ending were also a little predictable. One character’s arc in particular seemed like quite an obvious path to take for me. When compared to a lot of fantasy books, this one is quite short and I think I wanted it to be longer. Then more time could have been taken to explore the ending and the aftermath. Having said all this, it was a satisfying conclusion—there just some small nit-picks because I loved the first two books so much.
Overall The Poison Song was a great conclusion to the trilogy, and I would highly recommend checking it out. It concluded a fantastic trilogy, filled with a wonderfully written cast of characters, a vivid world and compelling plot. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for any future releases by Williams, whether it’s a new series set in this world or a completely new one. If you haven’t started The Winnowing Flame Trilogy yet, then I definitely recommend doing so now.
I received a digital copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Jennie Ivins
JC Kang