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The Last Mortal Bond: Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne, Book III by [Brian Staveley]

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Brian Staveley

The Last Mortal Bond: Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne, Book III Kindle Edition

by Brian Staveley (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

777 ratings

Book 3 of 3: Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne

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The trilogy that began with The Emperor's Blades and continued in The Providence of Fire reaches its epic conclusion, as war engulfs the Annurian Empire in Brian Staveley's The Last Mortal Bond

The ancient csestriim are back to finish their purge of humanity; armies march against the capital; leaches, solitary beings who draw power from the natural world to fuel their extraordinary abilities, maneuver on all sides to affect the outcome of the war; and capricious gods walk the earth in human guise with agendas of their own.

But the three imperial siblings at the heart of it all--Valyn, Adare, and Kaden--come to understand that even if they survive the holocaust unleashed on their world, there may be no reconciling their conflicting visions of the future.

Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne
The Emperor's Blades
The Providence of Fire
The Last Mortal Bond

Other books in the world of the Unhewn Throne
Skullsworn

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Print length

897 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Tor Books
Publication date

March 15, 2016
File size

4520 KB
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Editorial Reviews

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“The culmination of Staveley’s trilogy succeeds in every possible way, delivering readers a truly epic tale full of memorable characters, clever politics, an intelligent magic system, brutal battle scenes, and witty dialogue.”—Fantasy Faction, 10/10 Stars
“Deeply satisfying.”—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
“Darker and fiercer than the other two books […] the way Staveley crafts the ending, bringing everything together, is just masterful.” —Speculative Herald
“The Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne is a trilogy that’s gone from strength to strength as it’s gone on—that’s gotten not just bigger but measurably better with every increasingly vital volume—and it’s my pleasure to tell you that The Last Mortal Bond is, without question, Staveley’s most impressive and immersive effort yet […] What I didn’t expect was that it would take my breath away. But it did.”—Tor.com
“Staveley shows how to end a fantasy epic with The Last Mortal Bond.”—io9
“One of the most brutal, gut-wrenching, raw, emotional, masterfully told, brilliantly plotted, beautifully written series I have ever had the pleasure of reading.”—The Book Eaters
“A phenomenon like the Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne comes along once in a lifetime.”—The Qwillery
“Epic does not even begin to describe this dramatic third and final installment in the Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne.”—Bibliosanctum
“The perfect ending to a fantastic trilogy.”—Beauty in Ruins

Additional Praise for the Chronicles of the Unhewn Throne
“Brutal, intriguing and continuing to head toward exciting events and places unknown.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review, on The Providence of Fire
“A complex and richly detailed world filled with elite soldier-assassins, mystic warrior monks, serpentine politics, and ancient secrets. Readers of Sara Douglass's Wayfarer novels and George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series should enjoy this opener.” —Library Journal, starred review, on The Emperor's Blades
“An enchanting union of old and new, Staveley's debut will keep you turning pages late into the night.”—Pierce Brown, New York Times bestselling author of Red Rising, on The Emperor's Blades
“Intricate characters, complex relationships, and plots within plots... these are the hallmarks of great fantasy and Staveley succeeds across the board. A brilliant debut!” —Jason Hough, New York Times bestselling author of The Darwin Elevator, on The Emperor's Blades
“Loved every second of it … a full, immersive, magical, and exciting world, with characters to match.” —Fantasy Faction, 10/10 stars, on The Providence of Fire
“Reminiscent of the deadly plotting found in the popular Game of Thrones series.” —SFRevu on The Emperor's Blades

About the Author

Brian Staveley lives in rural Vermont. The Last Mortal Bond is his third novel, following The Emperor’s Blades and The Providence of Fire. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00WR9L08I
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Tor Books (March 15, 2016)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 15, 2016
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 4520 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 897 pages
Lending ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #111,022 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #326 in Military Fantasy (Kindle Store)
- #452 in Military Fantasy (Books)
- #1,549 in Coming of Age Fantasy (Books)

Customer Reviews:
777 ratings

About the author

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Brian Staveley

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After teaching literature, philosophy, history, and religion for more than a decade, Brian began writing epic fantasy. His books have won multiple awards and been translated into a dozen languages worldwide. His forthcoming novel, The Empire's Ruin, begins a new trilogy set in the same world of the crumbling Annurian Empire.

Brian lives on a steep dirt road in the mountains of southern Vermont, where he divides his time between fathering, writing, splitting wood, falling off his mountain bike, and chasing the bear away from the trash, not necessarily in that order. He can be found on twitter at @brianstaveley, as well as through his website: www.brianstaveley.com

Customer reviews

5 star		61%
4 star		22%
3 star		10%
2 star		5%
1 star		2%

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Top reviews from the United States

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J. Lease

A promising trilogy grinds to a halt

Reviewed in the United States on December 8, 2016

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The Emperor's Blades had such a promising beginning--fun, entertaining flying warriors on giant birds...An emperor murdered and empire in crisis? What's not to like? However, progressively Staveley deviated from this formula for the second and third books and instead bored ever deeper into trying to create a gritty world driven by its fatally flawed divinities.

Each book pushes deeper into this increasingly dark, introspective venture, and the third installment pushes the dark, bitter, and hopeless quest for realism even further--and, to me, with disappointing results. While the first book may have been guilty of engaging in some of fantasy's cliches, Staveley trades that for darkness and hopelessness that pits his characters against increasingly impossible situations and mutually-destructive ends. There seems to be no winning for them at times, and I found the slim strand of hope Staveley eventually tosses them is completely overwhelmed by the sheer bulk of the depressing theology he depicts.

After painting mankind's plight in hues of pain, suffering, and brutality on one side, or dispassionate bleak emotionlessness on the other, the tone of the entire book is drawn down the darkening path he began in the second book.

Are there highlights? Certainly. Deep, flawed, and interesting characters? Yes--in fact, I feel like his characterisation for the two brothers took a great step forward in this book. However, through their eyes we see the bleak hopelessness of Staveley's world of curiously impotent yet all-encompassing psychotic gods and their followers. Honestly, I would've been happier with Staveley's world had i stopped with the first book. Instead, I found myself depressed and finishing the third book on inertia--to a vaguely dissatisfying ending that leaves as many lose ends as real life frequently does.

The question is, do you want that kind of depressing ending for your fantasy / escapism reading? I'll say, "No."

18 people found this helpful

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a customerTop Contributor: Painting

Huge disappointment

Reviewed in the United States on June 19, 2017

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I can't believe this book was written by Brian Staveley, the author of the masterpiece "The emperor's blades," and an intelligent and insightful blogger on all things literary. It has almost everything you fear to see in a bad fantasy book: endless pointless moving around of characters from A to B, and then to C, back to A, whence to C; hollywoodesque behavioral patterns of all characters (I've never met an empress in person, but I would hope for more than foul language and temper tantrums); pseudo-philosophical drivel; super-powerful villains that are invincible for thousands of pages, only to be finally killed off by a well timed kick in the behind; characters that make absurd choices for the sole purpose of adding an element of "tragedy"; and, of course, the warlike savages that are eager to kill you, but all in good humor, and you'll make friends quickly there if you just kill a few of them in return (will we ever get a fantasy book without those?).

I'm still giving the book 2 stars because I was sufficiently interested in learning how it ends that I read it all the way through, but it was a chore. I'm done with this author.

Finally, the language; I was impressed with Staveley as a prose stylist in the Emperor's Blades, but someone must have told him in the meantime that you're not a serious author if you don't use the f-word at least once on every page. Ok, it's a book for adults and I can actually take this once in a while, but it really doesn't add anything when used in the narrator's voice (as it is all the time in this book). What happened to good old English words such as "quite", "rather"? Instead, all we get is f******. That's f****** unnecessary.

11 people found this helpful

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Akie

pretty unsatisfying conclusion

Reviewed in the United States on January 3, 2020

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if, like me, you are purchasing this book because you've already inhaled the first two in this trilogy then, by all means, read on. if i told you story comes to an satisfying and uncertain conclusion; that there is no elegant through-line between the elements set up in the first book and the events of the final book; that there is pointless "last battle" were huge armies face-off against each other unnecessarily, where heroes make pointless valiant last stands, where one-liners are exchange in ridiculously unbelievable ways; that there is a low-grade *deus ex machina* slap-dashedness that runs from the firs page to the last – it shouldn't stop you from finishing the series and finding out how it all ends.

but i won't lie to your and say i'll even read another book or series by Staveley any time soon. i got burned. you're probably getting burned right now as well. my heartfelt apologies. enjoy the escape, nonetheless!

2 people found this helpful

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Brandon Z

A Decent Ending to a Good Series

Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2017

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This was a good ending to the series, but I didn't love it as much as the previous books, mostly because my few problems with the earlier books were even more evident in this book. Mainly that I strongly disliked the one main viewpoint character, Adare. I haven't really liked her that much in any of the books, but reading every chapter of her's became a real chore. At some points it almost seems like she's going to become the villain of the story, but I think the reader is supposed to like her. Kaden's story is okay, but I wasn't a huge fan of the whole gods angle, and it became a much bigger part of the story in this book. I definitely liked Valyn and Gwenna's stories the most again, but some of the turns Valyn's character took towards the end were a little goofy. Overall, I enjoyed this book, and it's a good conclusion to the story, but I didn't love the end. I'll definitely be reading his next book, and I would recommend the series, but it's not as strong as a third book of a trilogy I would have preferred.

5 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Hugh

Some very unique ideas not often seen in fantasy.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 28, 2021

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Spoilers for books one and two.

I hadn't read books one and two for many years so thankfully the author does a good job of naturally reminding us where Kaden, Adare, Valyn and Gwenna are and what they're up to without being too exposition heavy.

It's a massive boo but it's engaging. The world and characters are great but I want to focus on Kaden's fantastic story arc especially.

If you read a lot of fantasy - as I do - so many worlds and characters are very similar so when you see a concept that's unique it deserves praise and analysis. I'm talking of course about the Vaniate. What a wonderful idea and makes you ask yourself some tough questions. Life is hard, but is completely checking out and living in the void of nothingness the answer? Is feeling nothing actually living? And of course this ties into the main story with the Csetriim perfectly because this is of course what they want from humans.

Gwenna's story is also fascinating - this is a new story to this book so no spoilers - but what I can say is that it makes you think about the idea of bravery. When you are just afraid and cannot fight; are you are coward or is this a perfectly natural reaction? Should you step up or try and be useful elsewhere. Is it fair to demand that people should fight? As you can see both Gwenna and Kaden's stories touch on mental wellbeing but it's done in a very refreshing and interesting way. Excellent stuff.

Now, it's also an epic fantasy novel so there's plenty of fighting, battles and tactics to get your teeth into so it has a nice balance.

Onto the negatives: other reviewers have mentioned this already but the plot ties itself up in knots and I don't know if it would stand up to major scrutiny.

Also, there's no new surprises - think about some of the reveals we witnessed in books one and two - we're just along for the ride as a reader in this novel.

But overall the series is well worth your time. There's a spin off book and the first book in a new trilogy (set in this world) has been published. I'll be picking both up in the future so that's a good sign.

8/10

Erik WP

Great end to a flawed trilogy

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 10, 2019

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Truly one of the best and most original fantasy novels I’ve read in a long time. However, someone should have slid a piece of steel into Adare a long time ago. Her stupid can kill at a mile distance, more accurately than any Ketral sniper can. The reason I’m not giving a five star review is because some of the more interesting ideas are realised much too fast while some of the boring parts spin out endlessly. There are also a lot of unbelievably illogical events. SPOILER ALERT!

In the first novel we learn that there has never been a female emperor. Yet when Adere usurps the throne, half the empire immediately stands behind her. Why? If it is because of her general and the way he can deal with the Urghul threat, why doesn’t he get the throne while she stays at his side? I get it that she’s the prophet as well but in a patriarchical, medieval/roman inspired society nobody would stand behind a female, especially one that has never been in line for the throne and who has killed the leader of the most powerful religious order in the empire. It would have been more believable if il Tornja had stepped up as protector of the empire with or without Adere at his side. That has happened in Roman society a few times.

What makes it even harder to believe is that the true heir (Kaden) reappears and suddenly starts making unprecedented political changes. Nobody informs him of the huge threat that the Urghul pose and that it may be better to wait a bit ? He might have held off declaring the revolution until he was securely on the throne and at least had a clue what was going on in his empire. Instead he makes enemies out of half of his own subjects while at the same time dealing with an apocalyptic invasion AND an even larger threat of half and full gods.

The core of all the problems seems to be with the fact that the royal family inspires no reverence whatsoever. Kaden, Valyn and Adere are not thought to be special in any way which makes me wonder how the imperial family held on the power in the first place. How does the emperor keep his most elite warriors in check if they have no respect whatsoever for him or his heir? What was keeping the Kestrel from simply flying down to the palace and taking the throne? It’s not their undying loyalty to the emperor as that went out the window the moment there were two contenders for the job.

The same goes for the religious orders. The largest one wants to turn the empire into a theocracy yet settles for a female emperor because she somehow turned divine even if she did murder their equivalent of the pope.

And then there’s Kaden. I understand that he needs to learn the Vaniate in order to use the Kentas. But does he really need to spend 10 years in the middle of nowhere, without learning anything about being emperor, in order to fast travel around his empire? Aren’t there more pressing matters like, say, governing millions? No wonder he wants to get rid of the job title and delegate the responsibility to other’s. I’m a big fan of modern democracy but it seems to me you can’t just plug that into a pre-medieval society. Somehow Kaden manages to hold on to at least half of the former empire even though officially he should have no idea what a republic is and how it is different from a autocratic empire.

That brings me to the most baffling plot hole. With the imperial armies off to do battle with the Urghul, how does the Republic even hold power? There’s no such thing as a republican army and even the Sons of Flame obey his sister, not him. A much more logical train of events, if you must hold on to the idea of a republic, would be that Kaden ascends the throne as emperor, thanking his sister for keeping his seat warm. He could have dealt with the reality that il Tornja may have murdered his father but is also indispensable as military leader. Only after the Urghul were destroyed he could have hailed il Tornja as military hero and then gotten rid of him at a later date. After peace returned he could have made gradual changes to give his subjects more power. Maybe Brian Staveley could have done a bit more research into how Alexander the Great, Kublai Khan and the Roman emperors dealt with threats and political opportunities. Anyway, despite these flaws, the world that the trilogy describes is compelling and I hope there will be many sequels to come.

By the way, am I the only one that gets the feeling that the whole Gwenna and her misfits story arch was supposed to be a separate book that has been mixed in because a deadline was looming?

One person found this helpful

PB

Mediocre ending to an otherwise great series

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 30, 2018

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I really enjoyed the first two books in the series, but sadly the high point was with the first novel to be honest. This one does not really satisfyingly end things I feel and being honest, none of the main trio of characters jived with me any longer (aside from Vaylen to an extent). Supporting characters in some areas were also totally oblivious which just compounded the issue of the first 80% of the book everyone is running around with no idea what is going on and the pacing being awful. The last 20% of the book does start moving things significantly, but its all done in such a quick and compressed manor I was left somewhat disappointing, in particular by the ending.

With that said, some of the side character's were great as were some of the sub-plots and the forth point of view outside the main trio in this book was welcome.

In all, while I was disappointing by this final book, the series as a whole is solid and the standalone Skullsworn book was a blast to read.

One person found this helpful

Jonathan Payne

Creative serious with very believable characters ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 13, 2016

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A fantasy series that I thought was way above average in terms of character development and imagination.

The main point I would make is that all the characters seemed to make entirely rational decisions on limited information throughout the entire book. I had a hard time knowing how it was all going to end, or even whom I thought was right about their own view of the world, and it just kept me completely interested all along. Never was I just waiting for my opinion to be confirmed, even if it's just as simple as, "This person will prevail in the end."

I can't say any more without repeating myself: just an excellent series.

2 people found this helpful

Bedlingtonman

Brilliant

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 26, 2018

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I was hooked on this triology within a few lines of the first book. Each one is superbly written with a cast of characters that keep you reading just a little bit more than is sensible for your sleep! The third book makes you wish there were more to come, surely we cannot leave such a world with such well born characters alone to die? More of the same please Mr Stavley.

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