The Covenant of Steel trilogy is truly an excellent series.
I recently finished The Traitor, which was an excellent conclusion to the series, and I’m very much hoping to see more readers find the series now it is completed.
It’s always hard to review a book 3 of a series. How can you talk about it without giving spoilers to books 1 & 2? You can’t, is the answer.
The truth is people only want to know one thing. Did it get the ending right? Did the story carry you through to the end?
The answer is, yes, it did. The ending was excellent. The story was unexpected. Tense. Magical. Dark.
The Pariah and The Martyr were so good, I expect most readers who’ve finished the first two to read The Traitor.
So then, I will write this review more as a series overview so that new readers can ponder if this is for them.
In terms of genre, this is very much low fantasy. The world feels like the dark ages in Europe. Joan of Arc inspires the story. So does Robin Hood (don’t be expecting any men in tights though). The kingdoms are restless, constantly at war, or agitating. And the religion – which worships the seraphile, has a strong hold on the people and the monarchy.
What happens then when a woman preacher begins to find a following? What happens when her voice and sermons cause huge numbers of people to follow her? What happens when a man in her company has a gift that tells him when people lie?
The magic is subtle. No wands. No dragons. But it is there. Ancient and almost forgotten, but not by all. And this made for an intriguing melting pot. We meet both paupers and kings. Warriors and pirates. The cast is eclectic and characters weave in and out of the story.
The story is always Alwyn’s. A lowly forest bandit whose talents cause him to rise high in a world that has never cared for him. He has a great voice and through his eyes, we see chaos unfold. The story isn’t in a rush though, and as such Anthony Ryan is able to ratchet up the tension chapter by chapter.
In short, I think this is the best finished SFF series of the 2020s so far. It is a series I will read again. And I have to say, given how seldom I reread books, that there can be no higher compliment than this.