The Broken God by Gareth Hanrahan – Review

Published: May 18, 2021

Publisher: Orbit Books

Series: The Black Iron Legacy #3

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 624 (Paperback)

My Rating: 3.5/5.0

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

Synopsis:

Dark gods and dangerous magic clash in this third book of Gareth Hanrahan’s acclaimed epic fantasy series, The Black Iron Legacy.

Enter a city of dragons and darkness…

The Godswar has come to Guerdon, dividing the city between three occupying powers. A fragile armistice holds back the gods, but other dangerous forces seek to exert their influence. Spar Idgeson, once heir to the brotherhood of thieves has been transformed into the living stone of the new city. But his powers are failing and the criminal dragons of the Ghierdana are circling.

Meanwhile, far across the sea, Carillon Thay – once a thief, a saint, a god killer; now alone and powerless – seeks the mysterious land of Khebesh, desperate to find a cure for Spar. But what hope does she have when even the gods seek vengeance against her?

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I’ve very much been looking forward to the final (maybe?) installment in the Black Iron Legacy series, though finales are always somewhat bittersweet. This was not quite what I expected, but I can’t say that I had a particular expectation either. Ultimately I was left feeling a little underwhelmed despite my enjoyment of returning to some of the same characters.

This story sees Carillon Thay taking leave of Guerdon in an attempt to save Spar’s consciousness from dissipating. Cari returns to the haunts of her earlier years though the Godswar has ravaged the land and nothing is the same. The cities are a ruin, the gods – though some are dead – still wreak havoc and drown cities and poison those who stray too close to the remnants of their magic. Her goal is to get to the city of sorcerers with a magical text as her token to enter the magically walled city. Her journey isn’t straightforward at all and she is stymied at every turn.

Back in Guerdon we follow Rasce, Chosen of the Dragon and one of the favorites among the Ghierdana. He is tasked with ensuring the Ghierdana become the sole source of yliaster for the alchemists of Guerdon by any means necessary. He also somehow becomes Spar’s new saint in the process and makes liberal use of Spar’s ability to show him the happenings around the New City. 

There’s also the perspective of Baston, formerly of the Brotherhood and apprentice to the Fever Knight (the Brotherhood’s enforcer/torturer). Baston is working for Rasce because there’s simply no other route left to him. He’s also spying on him for Eladora Duttin, but he’s doing a piss poor job of it. 

Carillon remains my favorite character by far, so my enthusiasm was somewhat dampened when I had to plod through the two other’s POV chapters. Rasce was fairly unlikable though his connection to Spar was interesting. At times it almost seemed like he could be a decent person… but then it would sort of fall through. Baston was necessary, but a little boring. I love Cari, but even her chapters seemed to plod along at times with slow plot advancement and while all the new locales were interesting they didn’t amount to much at all. Cari was basically on a pointless side quest to keep her out of the way.

Overall I thought this was a decent read, but it’s by far my least favorite of the three books. It wasn’t bad by any means but it was slow and ultimately I thought the ending was kind of a let down. There will certainly be more books set in this world, per one of the author’s comments on Goodreads. I’ll definitely check out any future books set in this world because there’s so many really cool things/locations/etc. that were mentioned that were largely unexplored. This world is pretty much a treasure trove of potential stories and I can’t wait to check out any more that may come out!