2012 fantasy, last of its trilogy. Moon is taken from his adoptive
court by what may be his birth family, but it's all much more
complicated than that.
Perhaps my mood has shifted; perhaps this book doesn't bring as
much new as I'd hoped. There's yet another court, and yet more
politics, and somehow it doesn't have the fascination that the earlier
books held for me; how many times will Moon have to say "you claim you
care about me, but you didn't look for me when I went missing as a
baby" before it sinks in? After the first half-dozen maybe he should
say something else instead.
There's more of the Fell, the shapeshifting flying enemy of the
Raksura whom we met in the first book, and some of their motivations
become clearer. There's a very fine piece of delving into ancient
ruins (always one of Wells' strengths) to form the climactic action.
But at the end of it all… yes, all right, all Moon's problems have
been solved and he has a home that values him. But what are his
positive desires? He doesn't seem to have any. All the Raksura we meet
are basically content for things to go on as they always have, and
don't think of ever changing anything, even as the world's other
intelligent species are clearly out-developing them. Wells has clearly
spotted this, but with Moon as the viewpoint character, it has to be
left as hints for the reader.
So the series ends here, not in a definitive way but at least Moon's
to-do list is empty; Wells took it up again a few years later with
The Edge of Worlds.