I have nearly finished the book (probably about 10 pages left), and I have to say that I am kind of impressed by the ending. It is reminicent of a number of great epics in the sense that there is a lot of magic, but its never explained how magic works. Twards the ending of the novel there is one prophecy that the antagonists will only be defeated under the light of a commet. And they do great epic battle, but as the novel is nearly finished, I cant help but think that this is all seeming a bit too familiar. The big giant battle with prophecy’s and wizards, but everything is twisted on its head.

The books main selling point seems to be its contrarianism. In the book the main characters are not dashing hero’s who save the day against the evil sorcerer. They are hired assassins who work on behalf of said evil sorcerer who is working to defeat a resistance movement lead by another evil sorcerer, all of the luteniants are continuing to struggle against each other, it is to me an attempt at (realism)[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9_ODNTNDrY], in that it takes an absurd premise and twists it on its head. It shows the political drama inside the evil empire. The book ending on a victory for the evil empire (who employ the protagonists), and the leader of said empire preforming an internal coup against those unloyal to her. And it ends with another subversion of a trope, commonly at the end of a novel it is shown that a bit of the villan survived to tease at potential sequels. It is shown that one of the tag along characters is a reincarnated version of someone who has a chance to destroy the empire.

I would give the book a 9⁄10 in the end. But however I have a lot of reading I need to do for my case. So that is probably going to take priority over finishing all the books in this series. Although I probably will finish it up in my free time.