Thanks to NetGalley and Tor for the ARC of book 3, The Last Uncharted Sky, even though it came out back in August so this advanced review isn’t all that advanced. Mea culpa. This is going to be a review of the trilogy more than just the last book, but I’ll say a bit about the last book for those who have read the first two (An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors and A Labyrinth of Sorcerers and Scions, respectively). There will be no spoilers.
So with this book Curtis Craddock wraps up the Risen Kingdoms trilogy, and I’m happy to say the whole thing is great fun. For those who have never read any of it, this has almost a steampunk Alexandre Dumas vibe. The principal characters are Isabelle, a princess of l’Empire Celeste, and Jean-Claude, a king’s musketeer sent to be Isabelle’s bodyguard from the moment of her birth. Because Isabelle’s biological father is an asshole, Jean-Claude is Isabelle’s father in every way that matters.
l’Empire Celeste is one of several kingdoms in this world, and is fairly obviously France. (Other kingdoms are stand-ins for other late middle ages/early Renaissance powers like Spain, England, the Italian city-states, the Ottomans, etc.) The world itself seems to be mostly gas; the continents drift about on the ether, and they use airships to get from place to place. Each kingdom is ruled by nobles with their own particular flavor of sorcery. In France l’Empire Celeste is ruled by Bloodshadows, who can use their shadows as deadly weapons. Other kingdoms it’s different. The Spanish Aragothan nobility can travel between mirrors; the Italians Fenice can share ancestral memories, etc. They’re all engaged in the kind of cloak-and-dagger intrigues you would expect in a kingdom where the king is based off of Louis XIV.
Isabelle and Jean-Claude are both great characters. Isabelle was born to a noble family, but without any sorcery of her own she’s kind of an outcast. She’s also got a birth defect, an improperly formed arm, and between those and her father’s lovely personality she’s been kept on the family’s remote estate for her entire life. Because l’Empire has rather strict gender roles, Isabelle is unable to pursue her love of scholarship and mathematics in particular, but she gets around this by adopting a male nom de plume and publishing her work that way.
Jean-Claude is, by the time Isabelle is grown up and the story proper begins, is an old soldier. Still quite capable, but not as young as he used to be, but he makes up for that by being a canny old fox. He is absolutely devoted to Isabelle.
The other character that deserves to be mentioned is Marie. Marie is Isabelle’s friend and companion, until one day, Isabelle’s father decides to punish Isabelle by using his sorcery to drain away Marie’s soul, leaving her as a mindless automaton that Isabelle’s father can use as an avatar of himself. Usually these Bloodhollows (as they are known) don’t last very long, as they don’t possess survival instincts and nobles can always make new ones, but Isabelle devotes herself to taking care of her friend’s empty body in the hope that one day she might be able to restore her. This says a lot about Isabelle as a character.
The next three books are full of delightful intrigue and swashbuckling adventure of the very best kind. They are an utter delight, and (I suspect) would be even better read in one go than spread out like I read them. And the ending of the trilogy (I said I’d say something for those who have read books 1 and 2) left me with a big grin of pure happiness.
There’s lots of room for further adventures in this world, and I would love to read them. Or whatever other product Curtis Craddock has going. This was as fun a read as any I’ve ever had, and a worthy spiritual successor to the adventures of Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and d’Artagnan.