“I am not yet done. Behold I yield to nothing”

So. Memories of Ice. I didn’t think anything could be more shocking/painful than the last chapters of DG. I was unfortunately very very wrong. And now I’m glad that I was but when I first turned that last page I was seriously devastated.

Memories of Ice takes us right back to Genebackis and all the characters we left at the end of GotM. To keep it short, the two sides previously fighting are now allied against a new unknown powerful threat coming from the south. And more importantly the global storyline tying everything together is starting to unravel slowly, a lot is still unknown but we “meet” what will (so far) turn out to be the main antagonist pulling all of the strings. Trying to put it all together is fun, though so far I’ve been wrong about most of my guesses.

Now on to my opinion of this book. I have absolutely nothing bad to say about it. It comes as close to perfection as a fantasy book can get. The worldbuilding started in the previous books is upped a notch in regards to the history of this world, the magic and the cultural/religious beliefs and it’s all fascinating. There is a lot to digest but everything is distilled in small bits and pieces so it never feels like too much quite the contrary. The writting is stellar, I’m seriously in love with SE’s style, he’s an amazing story teller. Mind you, this book does not give answers to all the questions raised previously, if anything there are now even more questions. But patience is a virtue and all that so.

We get a much closer look at some previous characters. The balance between dramatic moments and comedic relief is achieved effortlessly. Also, I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again, Kruppe has my heart for the rest of time, he’s the best, I love him (and THAT scene with Caladan Brood, epic).

Oh and I have to mention that. T-Rex with swords. It sounds ridiculous but in a world where un-dead people are just walking around like it’s no one’s business, mountains float in the sky and people can shift into animals, including giant murderous octopus of some sort, it fits right in.

As I said in the beginning, after DG I didn’t think SE could achieve anything more mind-numbing than the slow and hopeless death march of the Chain of Dogs and it’s conclusion. As it turns out it’s actually possible and the absolute horror of the Pannion Seer’s army and the siege of Capustan was hard to stomach sometimes. And the ending was something else… safe to say I cried a lot and I had to stop reading multiple times before I actually managed to finish it.

There’s a lot of unsubtle foreshadowing in this book (much more than both GotM and DG) so it’s not like you don’t know what will happen. Halfway through you can guess at the fate of some characters but it doesn’t help a bit because while seeing it all play out hurts it’s the reaction of those around that is the most painful. There is no way to ready yourself for how SE pulls you right in with his characters and then refuse to let you go until you’re emotions are all wrecked.

A last word on Itkovian because he deserves it and so much more. If there is one character and only one to remember it’s him. He’s had a real profound impact on me. He’s not just a fantasy character, what SE has done and created with him is very beautiful and I will keep him very close to my heart. I can’t really say anything else about him without it being too big a spoiler but full respect to SE for creating him truly. He will stay with me for a long long long time and I hope I can someday see and process things the way he does.