Ioth: City of Lights
Author: D.P. Woolliscroft Genre: Adult Fantasy Publisher: Self Published
**I received these books from the author as a gift**
The people won and now Mareth is Lord Protector of Edland. But winning an election is a lot different than governing a country, especially when the empire of Pyrfew is expanding into the Sapphire Sea. In the interests of peace, Mareth must dispatch Alana to Ioth, city of a thousand lights, to convince the ruling merchants to turn their back on the empire. Neenahwi, armed with the knowledge revealed to her in her coming of age ceremony, desperately wants to determine Pyrfew’s plans and to take the fight to the emperor. But Llewdon, ancient elven emperor of Pyrfew, has had decades to develop his schemes and his agents are embedded in the least expected places. Everything seems to revolve around the disappearance of Jyuth’s master a millennia ago.
Will the heroes of Kingshold be able to survive fire belching ships, strange slimes, sinister doppelgängers, demon dogs, greedy merchants and past vices to lead Edland to safety?
I reviewed the first two books of the series last week, so here are my reviews for the next two books in this series!
Likes
- The TENSION. The biggest question of this book was what was going to happen after the events of Kingshold. The most amazing thing about this book is how the tension continues to build and build and BUILD, until you finally get to the end and you’re just completely floored.
- The consequences. I also loved that we got to see consequences of decisions and actions taken (all vague due to spoilers) and it created a great sense that no one was safe in this constantly changing political environment.
- Ioth: The city itself and the new environment was truly fascinating to see and I really enjoyed being there and learning about it’s culture.
Dislikes
- The ending. Though I thought the ending wasn’t bad, I did want a little bit more from it (this might be cheating, but I read Tales of Ioth right after this and I basically wanted a few short stories from that book to have instead been the ending of this one, just to have an even clearer sense of what awaits us next).
- Lack of transitions. Something I’ve struggled a little bit throughout the series is sometimes, there seems to be a lack of natural transitions, so it can sometimes feel like we are bouncing around between scenes.
Tales of Ioth
Author: D.P. Woolliscroft Genre: Adult Fantasy Publisher: Self Published
**I received these books from the author as a gift**
But we could not give up.
I am Mareth, once Lord Protector of Kingshold, and these are the stories of what happened after the fall, when everyone was at their lowest ebb. These are the stories of how the battle against Llewdon moved from the Jeweled Continent to Alfaria – the Wild Continent.
The next installment in the exciting Wildfire Cycle. Tales of Ioth, Book 2.5 of the Wildfire Cycle is essential reading, including a novella in five parts and four other short stories
Likes
- Clearer sense of why we needed to read this. One of my biggest critiques of the first Tales book is that I couldn’t really grasp why we were reading it and how it played into the larger narrative. I had a much clearer sense with some of the stories written here.
Dislikes
- The playing with time. Again, I really only wanted to see stories that took place *after* the events of the previous books, so this might just be a me thing.
- Still a few stories I struggled to understand why we read them. Basically, there were a few short stories (The Further Adventures of Old Man and His Pyxie, in particular) that I still couldn’t understand why we read them and how they would help the next installment. Obviously, without reading the next installment, it’s hard to know, but aside from the Dudenas novella, I struggled with the rest.
- Missing scenes I really wanted to see. Within the Dudenas novella, it reflected on a certain harrowing event from Ioth that I was really excited to see how a few particular reactions from certain characters. One, we didn’t get to see at all and the other, it felt like their POV shifted away *right* when I really wanted to see it, so that was a tad bit disappointing.
- The length of Dudenas: I also thought this could have been a short story, instead of the length of a novella, and still gotten it’s point across.
Ratings
For Ioth: City of Lights, I gave the book 4 gems out of 5. Easily the strongest book out of the series for me.
For Tales of Ioth, I gave the book 3 out of 5 gems. I did enjoy this installment better than the previous Tales, but I do also think that that format just isn’t one that I particularly enjoy as a reader (other fans of the series will most likely enjoy these tales much more than I, to be honest).
Cheers.
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