Siege of Rage and Ruin by Django Wexler – Review

Published: January 5, 2021

Publisher: Tor Teen

Series: The Wells of Sorcery #3

Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult

Pages: 304 (Hardcover)

My Rating: 4.0/5.0

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:

Siege of Rage and Ruin is the explosive final adventure in Django Wexler’s The Wells of Sorcery trilogy, an action-packed epic fantasy saga.

Isoka has done the impossible–she’s captured the ghost ship Soliton.

With her crew of mages, including the love of her life Princess Meroe, Isoka returns to the empire that sent her on her deadly mission. She’s ready to hand over the ghost ship as ransom for her sister Tori’s life, but arrives to find her home city under siege. And Tori at the helm of a rebellion.

Neither Isoka’s mastery of combat magic, nor Tori’s proficiency with mind control, could have prepared them for the feelings their reunion surfaces. But they’re soon drawn back into the rebels’ fight to free the city that almost killed them.

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CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR PREVIOUS BOOKS

I realized as I began to write up this review that I don’t have too much to say about this book that hasn’t been said in my reviews of the previous installments. We shall instead jump right to the point.

At long last, the Soliton returns to Isoka’s home city, and at her command no less. She’s determined to save her innocent little sister, but Isoka is clearly not up to date on current events. Tori helped to start a rebellion and is now leading it – clearly she’s not the delicate flower that Isoka imagined her to be and this initially creates a bit of tension between the sisters. How dare Isoka come in and treat Tori as a child? Tori is a formidable power in her own right, and though Isoka is still important she’s become somewhat less so now that the rebellion is the biggest threat to the city. Acquiring Soliton just isn’t as important when there are hordes of people wanting to burn down a city and pull the nobility down with them.

Isoka and Tori spend a decent chunk (maybe a quarter?) of the story trying to reunite with one another. Now, this isn’t exactly a long book and there’s a lot of action crammed in those 300 pages. I feel that there should have been a little more content and a slower build up to the grand finale, as this did wrap up very, very quickly and neatly. An epilogue teasing the continued journey of our characters would have been quite welcome too! These are probably my only quibbles about the story.

I thought this to be an enjoyable series overall and Siege of Rage and Ruin was a pretty good way to wrap up such an adventurous quest. I do think the split to two POVs (Tori and Isoka) was a good move, but more time needed to be dedicated to each in this installment to slow down the rapid pace of the story. Sometimes there can be too much too quickly and it makes big events seem run of the mill rather than as emotionally impactful as they might be. I enjoyed the romantic aspects of the story and thought both were well done, though Tori’s isn’t quite as serious or in depth as Isoka’s.