Sarah's Library

SPOILERS AHEAD, THROUGHOUT

I've been contemplating what to say about this book for the last three days. I mean I loved the series as a whole and I loved the characters individually and I know that what Logen's father always said, "You have to be realistic.", is true, but couldn't this fantasy series have ended just a little more fantastical? Did it have to be so realistic? Did the bad guy have to come out on top? Deaths, unhappy marriages, mental illness and unending quests for vengeance? Couldn't one of my favourite characters have a happier ending? You might say that Jezal was happy, but that's just because he didn't know the truth behind Ariss' emotional about-face. I don't think it will be very long before he gets tired of living with a woman who cries all the time and still manages to only tolerate, rather than rejoice in, his touch.

Certainly Bayaz was completely happy, but that doesn't make for a 'happy ending' because he was the bad guy. I also wasn't entirely sure of his motivation for setting the whole story off. Sure, he got a king and an arch lector who're in his pocket, but was that his intention from the beginning? Not sure. I feel like I need to read the whole series again with an eye to better understanding Bayaz, specifically. I also wish the relationship between Logen and the Bloody Nine had been better explained. Was it demonic possession? Or a split personality? Or something else entirely? I don't like open-ended endings or vagueness when it comes to the final explanations. I don't agree with the whole 'leave it up to the reader to make up their own mind' idea, I like the author to make it clear, tell me what happened, otherwise who knows where my imagination might take me, likely no where near where the author thought he was directing me. I've heard that there are a couple of stand-alones from the same world, I'll keep my eye out for them at the library.