Title: The Memory of Souls (A Chorus of Dragons #3)
Author: Jenn Lyons
Publisher: Tor Books
Publication date: August 25th, 2020
608 pages
4.5/5 stars
Goodreads Synopsis
THE LONGER HE LIVES
THE MORE DANGEROUS HE BECOMES
Now that Relos Var’s plans have been revealed and demons are free to rampage across the empire, the fulfillment of the ancient prophecies—and the end of the world—is closer than ever.
To buy time for humanity, Kihrin needs to convince the king of the Manol vané to perform an ancient ritual which will strip the entire race of their immortality, but it’s a ritual which certain vané will do anything to prevent. Including assassinating the messengers.
Worse, Kihrin must come to terms with the horrifying possibility that his connection to the king of demons, Vol Karoth, is growing steadily in strength.
How can he hope to save anyone when he might turn out to be the greatest threat of them all?
Review
The Memory of Souls is book three in the A Chorus of Dragons series by Jenn Lyons. This series is so intricate and detailed it makes Game of Thrones look like child’s play. I spent the first two books somewhat struggling to keep everything straight, as there is SO MUCH world-building. But Jenn Lyons really hit her stride with The Memory of Souls and it was enjoyable in so many more ways than the preceding books. I enjoyed the first two don’t get me wrong – but it was complicated and complex and a lot for my brain to handle. Now that I have a much more clear understanding of the world, I got to fully enjoy the characters and the intricacy of the plotting and intrigue that goes on.
This series is serious epic fantasy, very much for adults. Whereas there isn’t a lot of steam, there are references to sex and the world is very LGBTQ diverse which is amazing. Normally in epic fantasy it’s written in the perspective of the Middle Ages, where it’s not accepted and women are still considered property. In this universe, any sort of sexual experience is possible, accepted, and flaunted. There are also several races that are transgender by nature, and a country where it is very normal to use different pronouns. I think it’s a very cool touch.
The plot in this book really gets going. In such an intricate world, the first two books really were setting up this book. I normally feel like middle books get slow, but the opposite happened here. Everything was much faster paced and there were too many twists and turns to keep track of. I almost want to take a peek inside Jenn Lyon’s mind to try and figure out how she keeps all of it straight! Also, the ending is absolutely killer. I leave you to figure out in which way I mean that.
Seriously, if you love Game of Thrones or the Belgariad books, you should definitely pick up this series. I’m very much looking forward to the fourth book next year!
Thank you to Tor Book and Netgalley for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Happy reading, folks!
Baltimore Bibliophile 