Journey of the Wanderer by Shawna Thomas
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Although I've been mostly ambivalent about this series much of the way, when I started this book there were several hanging questions that I was actually eager to get to. But I got a sinking feeling when I realized that the story had skipped ahead two years from the cliffhanger ending of the last book. That feeling turned to resignation when I realized that I was getting completely new character POVs. Those that I had already invested in just faded away - again. There's a certain level of cohesion that I hoped would emerge between the four books that just didn't happen and only confirmed my ambivalent feelings about the previous books.
I don't mind adding new characters, mind you, but I also want to follow through with already existing characters to see how their piece fits into the story. Unfortunately, supporting characters appear when they're needed as props and then disappear when they're not. I found this frustrating and disappointing since I liked some of the characters and cultures and would have enjoyed reading more about them. It would have been so much more satisfying and added some more depth to the narrative.
Now that the series is finished, there are so many loose strings left hanging without a purpose. Clearly, this story just sort of rambled out as things occurred to the author because it shifts from book to book without any cohesion other than Ilythra seeking to unite the stones (but often not really actually doing anything very decisive towards that goal), and Bredych being manipulative and evil. Even though I liked much about the world and the characters, other than Ilythra herself neither were developed well or consistently enough to provide a satisfying story for me. Overall, the series is going to rate 2 stars, having some potential but failing to realize it.
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