The Raincatcher’s Ballad is, after more than 2 years, one of the top 3 fantasy series in our site, holding one of the best fantasy books in it. Now we are back to it with the final book, Choir of the Damned, and if you haven’t read the previous books, nor the reviews, well, you should click here for the introduction to a no-safety neck-breaking – blame that on Korvan – rollercoaster of a series, so get ready to be tossed around (don’t bother with the seatbelt, it will be useless) .
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From the last book, The Wrath of the Storms, we know we are reaching higher levels of danger, and the last scene of the last book still lives perfectly in our mind’s eye – yes, it was that epic – and we know that we are going to be thrown in absolute chaos from the start, unlike the other books that gave us time to breathe and adjust. The last statement would be ok, IF this was a normal chaotic fantasy book series, but nooooo, this isn’t! This is a Steven Mckinnon’s book series, and when you hear this name, you know that the word “chaos” is an understatement, “unhinged mayhem thickly coated in brutality – drugs, despair, betrayal, suicidal tendencies – and sparsely sprinkled with magic” is a fairly more accurate description of the undertones of this book series, so, if you are new here, consider this your warning, and remember: We at, Scribble’s Worth Book Reviews don’t give off warnings lightly.
To the destruction site!!! We mean, the book!
So, what is this final part of the series about? This book is divided in 4 main parts. The first and major part, is that Gallows, Serena; Tiera and the Mage are trying desperately to prevent a world war by stopping the Idari from attacking, while trying to convince other nations to discuss peace – and not to kill Serena, of course – . The other part is about Serena and her powers, that are trying to be hijacked by the Orinul, that is getting stronger and stronger, while her powers are growing out of her control. The third part is about the chaos that Dalthea is in, and how the fuck are they going to stop Korvan, the joyful and merciful king, – yes, he named himself that – from destroying and killing everything and everyone for fun (seriously, he is just playing around), and the fourth part is about Damien, and how is he going to reconcile with himself given that he is failing to kick Korvan’s stone butt (yes, Korvan is built as if stone, so…). So this renders the book a quite dynamic aspect and you will be entertained, oh, I forgot to tell you an important part – Gallows trying not(ish) to get himself killed, yeah… – and there will be a lot of surprises along the way. Yes, yes, of course there will be trauma too, but if you reached this far into the series, you already know how it goes.
Ah, yes, the sarcasm of Steven Mckinnon’s narrative, priceless. You don’t realize you missed it, until you read it again, it brings humour and a shade of light in this book in much needed times filled with dread and anxiety, even though we are just talking about the introduction chapter.
“Tyson Gallows had a talent for pissing people off. Whether they were military leaders, Ryndaran kings, or pirate queens, this talent knew no bounds. In fact, he couldn’t remember the last time he entered a country and wasn’t immediately taken prisoner.”
“He’d seen the Resplendence in paintings, where it stood tall and graceful and swept towards the sky—but the artists had taken great liberties: Its whitewashed stone was the colour of ash, cracks crawled over its golden dome, and the fractured peak of a broken bell tower speared the sky like a middle finger to the Gods”
There is an impending war, and our main characters will have to warn the Queen of Tarevia, about the invasion of the Idari without having to punch their way through her senses, and apparently, there are surprises for them, which makes you think: “Ah shit, here we go again. Somebody is either getting killed, or, this is about to go terribly wrong, because nothing is this good, nor easy in this series”. And you know what? You won’t be disappointed, ahahhahhahahahhaha.
Ok. This will be odd, but, even though this book is filled with dark and anxious moments of pursuit, demons and mango grenades, all this tension will be relieved by the charm and likability of… the main villain. Yes, you have read that correctly. The villain will make you laugh a lot.
Korvan, one of the best villains you will ever read. You just GOTTA love him. Korvan is the most likable, despicable villain in the Indie literature world, hands down! HAHAHHAHAH, seriously! This character is the light of the entire book, ahahhahhahahhah, and he’s the villain!!!!
Imagine a kingdom, a country, ruled by an ironic, twisted psychopath that is just shy of immortal. This king, makes up rules every other hour and announces them himself to his people, that are terrified of him to death, yet the rules make no fucking sense, and they are always punished with death. HAHAHHAHA. Things like “no breathing allowed, whoever breathes will be killed” and stuff like that hahahahahah, and he even gives promotions, hahahahhah Korvan is hilarious!!!
There are many lessons in this book, and although it might seem like a twisted tale of fantasy, it’s closer to reality than it seems. You see, when society tumbles down to chaos and utter anarchy, you have to trust your instincts, even if they say to cut people’s throats. You will get it once you read more of this book. It might save you, big time.
The tone of this book’s narrative style can be described as: “yeah, right, we don’t have time for this shit right now”, because really, every character at this point has been through enough crap to totally take it as another day in the park and just wants to end this as fast as possible while getting to the other side with enough teeth left to smile. – We told you this wasn’t an ordinary fantasy book …. –
This actually makes sense, because, if the author kept the same style of narrative, or at least tried to lighten up the mood of the narrative to make it at least bubbly when it came to the main characters, well, it would feel off. So, what you get is: pissed off, grumpy MCs punching their way through a horde of villains and demons, and bubbly villains having a great, jolly ol’ time sending hordes of demons and mini-villains to destroy the MCs. Yeappers! You have read that correctly.
So this time we have a twist in the plot as someone is trying to control Serena and steal her powers for their own use. This will raise a lot of questions and you won’t see it coming, but the implications will be dire for all sides.
Our favourtie prince-part-time-ninja-assassin will be fighting his way through the pages, but this time, not with bodies, but with guilt and the prospect of recovery. No. Steven didn’t give Damien a literary senzu bean and made him magically fully recovered, no. Our ninja will be less, much less, ninja and dangerous and able to do his tricks, to the point that you will say: “Ah shit, there really is no hope”. You will be in for a lot of surprises with Damien, but don’t raise your expectations. Don’t.
Who would have guessed that Tiera Martelo would be the funny badass character, and not just the badass character? Tiera will be one of the most active characters in this book, and you will learn a lot about her that you might have never even dreamed about, and you will see a new dawn on the character that you will like a lot! So, trust us when we say this: enjoy every bit of it.
But not everything is bad, our characters will get to get a rather forced tropical vacation on a forest filled with lurking dangers, mysteries right in the heart of the country with the most selvatic people, the Idari. Lucky! So much win! And talking about vacations, remember outpost 137? Where the wraiths and the wolves were? Yeahhhh…. about that. Let us just say that that place is as dangerous and as uninviting as it first was, and it holds three important secrets to the plot. One about a drug, the other about Korvan, and finally, the last one about how much the resistance forces are going to be in a dire predicament when they need it the least.
It seems that the author doesn’t forget previous scenes nor characters, and old “rivalries” will turn into friendships, unlikely friendships and partnerships in dire times. Sure, 30% of the characters you know and have known in the previous books, and like 85% of the ones you will read in this book will be dead by the final part of the book, yes, but that’s to expect, isn’t it?
One of the things that Steven McKinnon does well, and that every great author like him does, is that in all this fiction, in all this dark twisted fantasy book, there are truths so dark that we pretend we don’t see.
“Every time Elsie reckoned humanity deserved a chance at surviving, it’d go and show her just how little it had evolved. No matter how many years passed or how far mankind advanced, when it came down to it, humans were happy to live with atrocities—just so long as they happened to someone else.”
Isn’t it funny that it’s we are reading a fiction novel, a fantasy fiction novel and we are being thrown with reality in the face?
One thing that will keep you on the tip of your toes is the fact that the author infuses doubts in everything. OK, sure, things happen and there are facts that make the backbone and the flesh of the story, yes, but after every other step there are questions from our character’s about those same facts. Reality can be changed, or rather, the perception of reality is changed often, so you know what happened, but you won’t know why, nor its repercussions for long. This will keep you reading until the very end. Incredible.
Will this series be worth the read as a whole? Heck yes! Is this book better than the last? Tough question. This book isn’t meant to be high in the amazing scale, it’s meant to be a great read while concisely wrapping the series up without messing up everything written so far, which is a difficult thing to do. So, did Steven made a perfect not-too-grim-ending of the series ? YES! Yes he did. And considering all that our characters went through, it was a very summer-like ending for all, so yeah, this book is as amazing as it’s long, and this series will forever be, one of the most badass series in the fantasy world. If you don’t believe me, get the first book for free by subscribing to Steven’s newsletter.
OH, I almost forgot, for those who have read the entire series, you will notice that Steven explained and connect all the titles and the name of the series perfectly, and everything will make sense after you see it. Enjoy 🙂
Pros:
- Unpredictable plot with lots of twists, surprises, betrayals and powers
- Fights at every other chapter
- Lot of death and chaos
- Consistent in intention and narrative when compared with the previous books
- Hilarious and yet dark
- Relatable plot and with lots of dark lessons
- Well-built characters
Cons:
- Your favourite characters WILL die. Mark my words.
Scribble's Worth 