The Crimson Crown

Alexander Gordon Smith delivers what fans have been waiting for—a grand conflict for the fate of the world and an epic confrontation with an evil mastermind—and deftly concludes one of the best YA action series of recent years. In an attention-grabbing paradigm shift, Alex again finds himself a captive, though not at the hands of Furnace. A renegade army officer captures Alex and becomes obsessed with harnessing the “nectar” that gives him inhuman powers. Meanwhile, Furnace begins to mentally contact Alex, promising to free him. This clever upending of the series’ dynamic sets up a captivating final struggle for freedom, with familiar characters who join in along the way. The most surprising strength of the series is Smith’s ability to thoughtfully engage with questions of morality in the context of a gruesome monster thriller. In fact, much of the story’s tension derives from Alex’s ongoing character development and self-examination as he fights for survival, vengeance, and, at his darkest moments, power. Here, Smith delves deeper than ever into these issues via Alex and Furnace’s mind meld and a creepy, nightmarish side plot that explores the nature and very source of evil. The climactic battle scene is impressively grand and skillfully choreographed, and Alex’s confrontation of Furnace takes an unexpected and inventively dark turn. Readers will be transfixed and, ultimately, satisfied.

In this concluding volume of the series, wizard, thief, and now bodyguard Han Allister longs to marry his charge Queen Raisa, but she's committed to a political marriage to save her quarreling queendom. The "jinxflingers" hate the native Demonai clans, someone is murdering wizards in the slums (and Han is the prime suspect), and the Ardenine army hovers on the border, waiting for an excuse to invade. Only by playing the multiple schemers off one another to heal the country can Han hope to win Raisa's hand. Here the promise of previous volumes is realized: the budding love story springs to full flower and the hints captured in thousand-year-old legends are borne out, while the stakes are ratcheted up to perilous heights. Betrayal, war, and the faith of lovers all come around to a glorious conclusion as Chima weaves together her geopolitical, magical, romantic, and even mythical themes on an epic scale. anita l. burkam