... going through Goodreads, and I'm realizing that I must be one of the very few who won't be rating Return to Edan five stars.
While the writing remained as excellent as ever, it appeared to stray from much of the hallmarks that made The Prophet of Edan and The Way of Edan such great reads in my books.
With Prophet Bledla and the Torrlander advance finally beaten back, the focus shifts to the Illarchae and their newfound military prowess borne of unity and a deviation from their traditional battle principles. Change, after all, is the mother of progress.
At this point, the Prophet of Edan, nearly completely taken by the elf powers that helped him defeat Bledla, wanders off south, with miraculous encounters with individuals from all walks of life trailing his wake.
Sequara returns to Asdralad to stabilize her kingdom before making a personal discovery that places her in a struggle between duty and love. Prophet Joruman cements his place as the new leader of the religion while plotting new ways to gain power. Meanwhile, the Illarchae march on toward Torrland, intent on conquest.
As the Prophet of Edan heads for the epicenter of the maelstrom, will he survive the very powers that threaten to dissolve his existence? And will his friends be able to save him before it's too late?
Return to Edan took on a completely different trajectory from what I anticipated, which is perhaps the biggest reason I found the story less than satisfying and not necessarily any poor storytelling on the author's part.
Prophet Joruman's villainy didn't seem as impressive as his predecessor's, who I thoroughly enjoyed reading about. At a point, it seemed like his evil would have far-reaching effects, but I ultimately ended up disappointed.
Dayraven himself wasn't the least bit exciting to me in this book. He seemed robotic all through. I'd expected something.... different. The budding romance between Dayraven and Sequara was also thoroughly unsatisfying.
Finally, the Illarchae, whom I'd hoped to see a lot of, turned out... disappointing.
Although there were plenty of battle scenes and some decent character development to get me over the finish line, I just didn't find Return to Edan as intriguing as the last two books in the series.
Still, I highly recommend this series (as I already have), particularly to readers just getting into epic fantasy.
