[with apologies to the author]

De Castell turned to Kest. “How would you rate our chances?”
Kest rifled through the manuscript. “We’ll get four and five-star reviews and show up on a dozen Best of the Year lists, after which you’ll get one, no two, major nominations. People will be very sad it’s over and will repeatedly beg you for more. Falcio will appear on five or six “Best Characters in a Series” lists, which won’t do much for his humility I hate to say.”
“I’ll have you know I have the best humility of anyone.”
“My point exactly. I’ll get a Top 10 mention on a list of Best Swordsperson in a fantasy work, but poor Brasti will almost certainly be forgotten, unless someone makes a list of “Characters Who You Only Remember as ‘That Other Guy’”
Brasti glanced up from polishing his bow.
Falcio raised a finger before Brasti could speak. “Please tell me that isn’t a euphemism. I really—”
De Castell interrupted. “Don’t break perspective Falcio. And yes, we all hope it isn’t a euphemism.”
Brasti looked at his polishing cloth. “Nah, it’s just a mix of spit and ale and some other stuff I’m gonna leave a mystery just to drive Falcio crazy. Anyway, Kest is right. I will be recalled as ‘That Other Guy.” As in that other guy who killed a god and kept pulling the silly men with little pointy sticks, who did not kill any gods ever, out of certain death.”’
“Certain is a bit of an overstatement; I always had a plan.”
Kest smiled at Brasti. “Falcio had a plan.”
“So then, Absolutely certain death?” Brasti asked Kest.
“Definitely,” Kest answered.
“I think you two are confusing certain with near-certain. See, if we weren’t in positions of near-certain death, then we couldn’t be lauded for our daring feats of valor. ‘Maybe has a chance of dying’ just doesn’t cut it.”
Brasti snorted. “Lauded, he says. Is that what you call it when you’re jailed—”
“Several times,” Kest interrupted.
“Beaten.”
“Multiple times”
“Marched up a mountain”
“To be both jailed and beaten.”
“Labeled a traitor.”
“By official royal seal.”
“And are forced to face an army that has overwhelming numbers.”
“Plus better fighters and weapons.”
Falcio covered a yawn. “You two done?”
“Did I miss anything?” Brasti asked Kest.
“You left out being betrayed.”
“I thought about putting it in there, but everyone kept shifting sides so often I still haven’t figured out if we ever actually were betrayed or not.”
“How’d you know who to aim your arrows at then?”
“I just looked to see who was most annoyed by Falcio’s speeches.”
“That’s a pretty fine distinction to make.”
“Nah, the ones on our side mostly looked sleepy.”
Falcio turned to De Castell. “See what you saddled me with?”
The author shrugged. “I gave you what you needed.”
“Shoulda thrown in more of a sense of self-preservation while you were at it,” Brasti said. “Especially when it meant preserving us too.”
“A bit more pragmatism wouldn’t have hurt,” Kest added.
“An awareness of when he’s beaten.”
“A little less idealism.”
“A lot more knowledge of women.”
“A lot more knowledge of women.”
“I just said that,” Basti objected.
“He needed to hear it twice.”
“Oh. True.”
Falcio looked with a beseeching eye to De Castell. “Can’t you do anything?”
De Castell looked at him with a mix of frustration and compassion. “Oh Falcio, what more would you want? I gave you insurmountable odds. The fate of your country and loved ones at stake. Chance upon chance to raise the downtrodden, protect the oppressed, and redeem the fallen.”
“Is he talking about us?” Basti whispered to Kest.
“Shhh,” Kest said, waving him off.
De Castell went on as if he hadn’t heard. “I gave you a foe unlike any other you’ve faced, one all the more dangerous for the ways in which he was just like you. I brought old characters back on stage. Gave you the chance to set right the ways in which your greatest sorrow has been made use of. I gave you wrenching choices: who to save, who to sacrifice, vengeance versus peace, and most cutting of all, I made you choose between the two things you had always thought entwined as one: Justice and Law.”
“That’s all a bit obtuse for me,” Basti said.
“You mean abstruse,” Kest told him. “And be quiet, I’m listening.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“I gave you answers to questions raised all the way in Book One. I gave you duels and battles, jailbreaks and rescues, twists and turns, brilliants resolutions and heart-breaking closes.”
Brasti nudged Kest in the ribs. “Bit full of himself, ain’t he? No wonder he and Falcio get along so well.”
“Falcio, I gave you grief and joy and despair and hope and sorrow and love and loss and friendship. I gave you life. And of course, I gave you a chance, several chances, to ‘attempt something rather daring and heroic’.”
“Don’t forget ‘doomed to fail,’” Brasti chimed in.
“Because ‘preposterous heroics are the only things we’ve ever been good at,’” Kest added.
“I even gave you, Falcio,” De Castell continued, “something too many fantasy authors don’t give their favorite characters.”
Brasti winced. “Did he just call Falcio his favorite? We’ll never hear the end of that.”
“What’s that,” Falcio asked. “A jaunty attitude? A rugged handsomeness?”
“An ending,” De Castell said.
“Ahh. Yes.” Falcio smiled, a genuine smile relieved of all tension or forced cheer. “There is that.”
“Wait. What?” Brasti said. “We’re done?”
“No Brasti,” De Castell answered, looking at them all. “But you are free. Free to do what you’d please now.”
“But,” Brasti began.
“Everyone shush now,” Falcio said. “I’m about to be impressive.”

Tyrant’s Throne is the fourth and final entry in Sebastien De Castell’s “Greatcoats” quartet. I’ve been a big fan of the series. It combines an energetic and adventurous buccaneering style with moments of great emotional intensity and honesty. I’m desperately sad to see the series end – but can safely say it went out in style.

Following the previous instalment, Falcio and his band of Greatcoats are getting ready to put Aline, the daughter of their murdered king, onto the throne of Tristia. It’s not an easy process. We’re shown the political factions which swarm around Tristia, most of them seemingly motivated by self-interest. None of them are particularly keen on Aline – but they’re coming around to holding their noses and accepting her, because the alternative is even more civil unrest in a country which has been tormented by uprisings and other chaos for years. Still, politics isn’t the natural battleground for Greatcoats – they have a tendency to stab and/or shoot arrows at things. The atmosphere is febrile, to say the least.

Fortunately, in between the deal-making, another threat has raised its head. Those outside the borders of Tristia are eyeing up the real estate. There’s a whole world outside the nation we’ve spent three books in, and if we only get to see a little of it this time around, I can safely say that as a culture, it’s excellently crafted. The traditions and society of the outside world are sympathetically and plausibly drawn – they are not a thoughtless antagonist, but one where the conflict is drawn out from cultural differences, and the social changes that we’ve seen in previous books in the series. If you can’t sympathise with the potential threat, you can certainly empathise with them.

If the world is being thrown open to broader horizons, the characters are their well established selves. Brasti, who can’t stop running his mouth, even whilst putting arrows into people, and Kest, the laconic, nigh undefeatable shieldman are here, backing Falcio, our long running protagonist. The relationship between the trip remains an absolute joy. The banter is sometimes caustic, often hilarious, and occasionally exposes the raw trust which they each have in the others. The dialogue thus remains fresh, funny, but often surprisingly affecting – these are people who have known each other a long time, faced men and gods together, and, in the end, aren’t inclined to lie to each other or to themselves. There’s some final threads that get resolved here, which have vexed loyal readers for years (how *did* Falcio beat Kest and become First Cantor in the first place?); but there’s also some refreshing revelations as well. If the wit helps mask the raw intensity of the emotional payload, that make it no less real – and the prose gives it strength and surprising clarity. As Falcio and his oldest friends work out who they are and where they stand, I was wrenched between delighted laughter and utter heartbreak in every other line.

In honesty, this was a book whose dialogue and relationships gave me more than one belly laugh, and also left me in tears. I can’t give a stronger recommendation than that.

The plot – well, it starts slowly, with the aforementioned politicking. It’s interesting stuff, and the tension builds to keep you turning pages. But there’s a lot more going on here. Without spoilers, I’d suggest that the stakes have never been higher for Falcio and his band. There’s some effectively, terrifyingly drawn battles, and duels that left me with my heart in my mouth. This is a story of resilience, and of friendship, of love and trust – and the consequences of those things. There’ blood and steel, but in the end, this is about shaping the world, and perhaps more importantly, the people we care about within it.

Would I recommend it? If you’ve not read the Greatcoats before now, I’d say you need to get on that first. If you’re wondering whether to finish it though, this is an unequivocal yes. Get on that. Get the book, read the book. It’s a conclusion which relies on what came before, but uses that emotional depth and connection to provide an absolutely brilliant payoff. Read it – you won’t be disappointed.

Tyran'ts Throne was always going to be bittersweet for me. All final novels are, and for this series, one so close to my heart, this would be even more heart wrenching. But I was never at all worried that de Castell would not give me a book that I would love. I could have rated this book five stars without ever reading it.

This ending is befitting the series, emotional, moving, and satisfying. All the signature de Castell calculating moves and expert storytelling signs are there as this gigantic story line comes to a close. We have the same characters we know and love, new allies, and old friends. They will surprise you. You may think you know everything there is to know about them, but you're wrong, and in a wonderful way. New people will pop up who may be fleeting in the grand scheme of things, but their presence is like a burst of sunshine, a meteor crossing the sky. Their presence is known. Even old friends and enemies resurface, bringing with them references from the past that make your blood boil and you tear up.

The plot is as complex, the losses as severe, and the tears as numerous as ever. There seems to be no end to de Castell's masterful weaving, every bit a Tailor himself. I could say millions of things about the moments that made me cry, my favorite quotes, and the tender seconds of on my seat anticipation. Tyrant's Throne is truly a fitting end that makes your heart warm, break, and move.

I'm going to call this one a 3.5 star, and I'm really surprised I feel that way about it. I have absolutely LOVED the three previous books. However, this one just felt so formulaic to me. Big action scene, Falcio says something sarcastic, Brasti says something that is supposed to be funny, Falcio tells Brasti to shut up, Kest says something serious - a fight ensues - against all odds, the Greatcoats come out on top again. Repeat 20 times. UGH - I really wish I didn't feel this way about the book. Perhaps part of the problem is that right before this I read the last Fitz & the Fool book which just wrecked me emotionally, and maybe I just wasn't in the mood for "silly".

Either way, it just felt a bit flat - I felt the book was exactly like the previous three, I just didn't feel like anything new happened. I guess I don't have a lot more to say about the book. I did like it, I just didn't love it.

A very fun series with some incredible action sequences. The worldbuilding has expanded with each volume so you are never really sure where things are headed.

The Greatcoats is one of those rare fantasy sagas that just continues to get better with each instalment - an even more impressive feat when you consider Saint's Blood was a book I didn't think could be topped.

In fact, even though I wasn't consciously aware of it, I suspect I went into Tyrant's Throne looking to be disappointed. I felt it got off to a slow start, and I convinced myself it was lacking any sort of direction. It was simply not the book I expected to follow the killing of a God. I mean, honestly, how do you follow that up? In fact, chagrined as I am to admit it now, I may even have allowed myself to wonder why Sebastien de Castell dared to sully such an exemplary trilogy by stretching it into an unnecessary quartet.

And then we got to the other side of the mountain, saw what - and, more importantly, who - awaited us, and I suddenly realized how many loose ends remained, how much of the story had yet to be told, and how desperately I didn't want it all to end.

If you'll allow me the Star Wars indulgence for a moment, Knight's Shadow was really the 'Empire' of the The Greatcoats saga, just as Saint's Blood was its 'Jedi' (minus the Ewoks). So, where does that leave Tyrant's Throne? Well, I can think of no better way to describe it than as a second helping (or, rather, a second interpretation) of 'Empire'. It is dark, violent, and tragic, a painful story that seems entirely devoid of hope. For every heroic deed, every valiant act, there is an even larger betrayal looming. Time and time again it goes to the darkest of places, leaving us sure that Falcio and Aline have suffered the worst that the world has to offer, only to discover that there are even deeper, darker holes hiding in the shadows.

That's not to say this is a depressing book or even a frustrating one. Instead, it is an impossibly engaging piece of storytelling that demands you give everything of yourself, with no promise of a happy ending in return. It is a book that questions everything we know about the Greatcoats, including the Greatcoats themselves. For a series that has already seen Falcio val Mond tormented and tortured beyond the limits of all compassion, we have never seen him as fundamentally broken as we do here. Everything - literally everything - he has ever believed in is called into question. As heroic/tragic character arcs go, I am not sure there's a better one anywhere in epic fantasy today.

If this is the last we see of Falcio, Kest, Brasti, and the rest, then you couldn't ask for more than Tyrant's Throne. I hesitate to use the word 'perfect' but this is about as close as epic fantasy gets to that plateau. Character arcs, storytelling, world building, mythology, conflicts, and relationships - it all comes together in a brilliantly satisfying finale of fiction that keeps going right to the very last page.