Red tides brings the Chronicles of the Exile series to an end in a way which is disenchanting and, despite being a decent book, feels very much like the author had lost interest by the end.
As before I have not paid for this book and have instead checked it out from the local library. I had greatly enjoyed Dragon Hunters so was quite looking forward to this one which follows on pretty much immediately from book two. By the end though I was left feeling flat and more than a little disappointed. The preceding two books had a clear narrative structure with a central plot with multiple spokes running to it and culminating at the end. This one tries to do that but seems to struggle a little and in places it feels bloated and leaves so many loose ends I found myself wondering if there was a book four which I did not know about.
The story this time switches between Gilgamar and the Rubyholt Islands and has a mix of new and recurring characters. Ebon from book one is back as is Romney. Meanwhile Marzana, Senar Sol amongst others are carried over from book two. We also get a host of new characters but the key players are Amerel, another Guardian, and Galantas who is the son of a pirate chieftain. The Augerans, revealed in book two, are the main antagonist and the whole story revolves around the Emperor trying to build an alliance against them, the Rubyholt Islanders trying to survive, get revenge and rich and also the Emperor trying to destroy the Augerans advanced fleet. Spoiler alert he achieves both goals but in a rather underhand way.
The issue here is not so much what is said but what is not said. There is no real information about why the Augerans are so keen to invade. It is suggested they are some sort of nihilistic people but this is never expanded upon and they just come across as being bad for the sake of it. As a plot device this works in an abstract sense but you never really feel much either way about them and it is part of the reason why I always dislike such absolutist motives. Having an antagonist that is so one dimensional cuts off a lot of potential plot lines for both them and the protagonists. It is hard to see any character growth or moral ambiguity when the only choice is kill or be killed. This undoubtedly hurts this story for me because whilst Amerel is clearly supposed to be morally ambiguous it is hard to judge her when the Augerans just kill anyone they decide to.
Whilst the Augerans may be one dimensional antagonists; the gods remain non dimensional irritants in this story. The spider meddles seemingly for the sake of it but why remains a mystery. The god of the hunt from book one is mentioned in passing and whilst Shroud is used as a curse he does not feature here. Aside from the brief corruption of Marzana elements, which are never fully explored, the gods serve as nothing more than a break in the narrative and I could not help but think the whole story would be just as good without them. Romnay remains an interesting character but there is nothing really in her arc which could not have been done in a different way.
Senar Sol remains an interesting character but even here the divided loyalties storyline is not really played out for him. There is an insinuation at the end that he kills the Imperial ambassador out of his own personal sense of honour and he certainly gets some impressive action scenes but there is no real conclusion to his storyline. Indeed the only one which does get a complete payoff is the one involving the chameleon assassins and also Galantas; mainly because it is a terminal one.
All in all this is a book which on one hand is a fun read, it is exciting and has a strong mix of action and political scheming but on the other it is so frustrating because there is so much left unanswered and unfinished. I do not know if there will ever be another book in the series but the depth of world building and the obvious solid underlying story here does deserve one to be written. All in all I would say read this one to finish the series but do so in the knowledge that it will leave you with a lot more questions than answers.
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