Cold Steel by

1 May 2016


Call no:
Genre:
Cover Illustrator :
Setting: ,
Rated :

Book three in the Spiritwalker trilogy.

Short, totally spoiler-free review is “aahhhhh, read it!” but three words may not be enough to persuade everyone. So to that I’ll add that this is a book by Kate Elliott and so it has great female characters, epic fantasy action, magic, treachery, love, and examines power structures all in a great story.

Cold Steel (Spiritwalker, #3)This is the final book in the trilogy, but I’m going to try and avoid all mention of plot, because spoilers are just horrible when you aren’t looking for them. The story began in Cold Magic when Cat (our narrator) and her cousin Bee were forced to confront some of the realities of their world. And throughout the three books one of the primary focuses of the book has been the power structures in society. The roles of women, the roles of the peasants and the working class, the power wielded by the feudal lords, and how recognising the inequalities in the world you live in is just the first small step into true adulthood.

The world of Cat and Bee is a sort of alternate Europe in the time of the Napoleonic wars, and it has a sortof version of the French Emperor, and in a way the French revolution, as the two girls get entangled in the fight for the freedom of the working classes, and of women’s rights.

And all woven into a great entertaining story.

By the end of this book I was in love with this series, the first book was good, as was the second, but they hadn’t hit that sweet spot with me that previous Elliott books have [ref]Jaran I loved from the very start. It’s so great, and I’m not just pushing it because the series isn’t finished and needs reader love to bring it back from its hiatus. Honest.[/ref]. But the final two thirds of this book pushed it from really enjoyed this series to “loved it”.

Yeah, in conclusion aaaahhhh, read it!

You may also like...