This is 3rd in Daniel M. Ford's gripping Warden fantasy series. In the first episode, kick-ass Necromancer / Enchanter / Abjurer Aelis de Lenti was assigned as Warden for remote Lone Pine village.

In the previous episode, Aelis' beloved elfling friend Maurenia was caught in a magical trap. Aelis is desperate to find a way to release her. Now she's been recalled to Lascenise to support her mentor, Warden Bardun Jacques, who has been charged with murder. She needs to prove his innocence, but also hopes he can help her save Maurenia.

Someone really doesn't want her to succeed.

Daniel Ford has created a world that feels so real that I could reach out and touch it. Every character feels like someone that you could meet in real life but they could also be your best friend or worst enemy.
The magic and relationships in this series feel like discovering something which is in itself a type of magic.

this was a strong third entry in the Warden series, it had that element that I was looking for and was invested in what was happening. It continued the story perfectly and the characters continued to feel like they belonged in this universe. Daniel M. Ford has a strong writing style and was glad I got to read this. It worked with the previous entries in a realistic way and the characters were so well written. I really enjoyed the cover and description of this and was glad I got to read this.

In some ways, Daniel M. Ford’s Advocate was enfuriating. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still enjoying the story and the world, but everything Aelis’ friends and allies point out to her about not planning ahead, being a bull in a china shop, trampling on other people on her way up — it’s all true, and Aelis hears it and is hurt by it and claims to take it on board… and then keeps doing it!

If she could plan ahead just a little, use her allegedly amazing brain just a bit, she could see so much of this coming, including each of the obvious-as-heck twists at the end.

I want Aelis to be brilliant, once-in-a-generation, able to kick anyone’s ass, but I do want her to earn it. She keeps saying that she has, but then she gets by on vibes, large amounts of money spread around, and what seems like frankly unearned loyalty from her friends and family. She is a good healer, and I mean both technically skilled and driven to help people regardless of their status, station or feelings toward her — even when they’ve wronged her. She’s also loyal to Bardun Jacques, her teacher, but unfortunately to the point of stepping on everyone else’s faces to help him (including people she also owes loyalty). She doesn’t deserve Miralla’s friendship, in particular. And she sees literally nothing coming until way too late.

Sometimes Ford does lampshade this by having her friends say so, but they remain her friends and support her cause and forgive her, no matter what happens, so it doesn’t have much bite.

The more I think about it, the more annoying I found this in Advocate. Aelis just isn’t learning, and we’re three books in. I’d read the next book, because the magic systems of this world are cool, and Aelis’ passion for being a warden and serving people is enjoyable to read about… but in the next book I need to see Aelis face some actual consequences or grow up, or I might have to be done with the series.

It was cool to see the Lyceum, learn more about some of the Archmagisters, and see a bit of the world outside of Lone Pine, though.

This is probably my favorite in the series so far! If you liked the previous books I think you will definitely like this one. I very much enjoyed the new characters introduced specifically Mihil! This book was darker and had more twists and turns than the last two which is why I think I enjoyed it more. This was a good read and I am looking forward to seeing where this series goes.

An Empty Rescue Plot
Daniel M. Ford, Advocate: Book Three of the Warden Series (New York: Tor Publishing Group, April 22, 2025). EBook: $19.99: Fantasy. 368pp. ISBN: 978-1-250815-73-6.
**
“Wineshops on every corner. Assassins in every alley. It’s good to be home. Aelis de Lenti is back on her home turf, but it’s not quite as welcoming as she remembered.... Recalled from Lone Pine to investigate claims of murder by magic against her mentor—legendary Warden Bardun Jacques—Aelis takes to the streets of the grand city of Lascenise, and plumbs the deepest secrets of the Lyceum to clear his name.” Not much more than this is said about this Jacques in the body of this novel. It is unclear what made him “legendary”. It is instead the lead character who is said to have “cracked barrack-crypts full of undead,” who “matched wits with a woodshade, commanded the power of the most sought-after artifact of my primary school…” Though from there the description becomes nonsensical with a reference to riding “an undead construct made entirely of teeth”. Basically, the hero needs somebody to rescue, and the rescued party has to be significant for some reason to catch the reader’s interest. “Certain of her success, she doesn’t count on thieves, subterranean labyrinths, or the assassins that dog her steps from the moment she leaves her tower. Behind all of it lurks a ring of unknown wizards who can seemingly reach anyone with their magic. Without knowing who she can trust, Aelis must gather what allies she can to unravel the web of intrigue, murder, smuggling, and theft originating in the halls of magic power. With an old friend from her college days, a war-haunted gnome thief-catcher, and the advice of her imprisoned advisor, Aelis races to save lives and expose a conspiracy that seeks to change the face of the world.” This summary overlays several archetypes (helpers, hero, person-in-need) over a world-saving formulaic plot. Though the interior does not really explain why the world is in trouble in this plot. What evil spirit is behind it? What exactly is this evil spirit’s goal in doing general evil?
This is my first introduction to this series, but other readers might also be entering this world at this late stage.
The opening scene includes difficult to picture description, such as a character feeling “a fist squeeze her heart” before she slips out of a saddle and grabs her two “animals’” reins. It’s unclear if there is a magical grab of the heart, or if this is metaphorical before the story moves on to some voice from the darkness asking if they are about to be rescued, and being told that this is instead just a visit to cheer him up. This seems to be foreshadowing a future adventurous rescue, without actually delivering this action right at the beginning where at least the promise of action is needed. This seems to foreshadow that the author has a very limited rescue plot that they cannot just unravel at the start without running out of other stuff to do in the plotline.
As this intro promised, the concluding page shows that the imprisoned character has finally just been liberated after the plot has run its full course. As a resolution this rescued character promises to go “wherever”, as there is a fake “smile” and “tears” coming to the rescuer’s face. They awkwardly and pointlessly kiss, before the female character goes into her “tower”, considers “breakfast” but decides she is “not hungry”. This woman is just trying to avoid showing weakness as she is crying, while she is called to do medicine, and this call to new action terminates the narrative. If this was the first time in this story when a character started crying to elicit an emotional response from readers, it would be somewhat powerful. But in the middle of this story, Aelis had already broken into “unexpected tears”, and had already apologized for “getting emotional” because: “A dozen or so thieves tried to kill him; I gut-stuck one, cut the hand off another, dealt wounds to four or five more, almost died.” She tells herself: “wardens don’t cry”. The point of this digression seems to be to remind readers that the lead-hero is a weak woman, who is fighting against this nature as she goes on a violent rampage.
This is an unreadable novel, as it blends absurdity, with hard-hitting action. There is some engaging action scenes, and some description, but there is so much hot empty air between these sparks of clarity that readers are unlikely to make it through this reading.
Pennsylvania Literary Journal: Spring 2025 issue: https://anaphoraliterary.com/journals/plj/plj-excerpts/book-reviews-spring-2025

This story picks up right after the end of book two in the series.

Our main character, Warden Aelis, visits Mauriena and informs her she must leave on Advocate duties for her mentor.

On the way back to civilization, Aelis and her traveling companion, Warden Amadin, are attacked. Amadin plays it off, but do we trust him?

You get to see other types of Wardens, which makes the magic system even more fun. (Such as a suit of display armor handing over files via Conjuring).

Aelis's mentor is behind bars and has uncovered some back things happening in the world of wizards and Wardens - it's now Aelis's responsibility to finish the investigation and figure out who is behind it all.

New characters are introduced, including former teachers, a friend/former classmate, another Warden, and a gnome with an alcohol problem.

This encounter is a perfect summation of Aelis as a main character:
"Doesn't seem like a good idea to me." - Miralla.
"My ideas never are. But my execution is flawless." - Aelis.

Aelis might not be a very good friend, yet her unwavering belief in justice seems to keep her friends at her side.

This story has a mystery of who is the true bad guy. Lots of politics. However, it's nice that Aelis, as always, has to work to find out the information. Secret societies was an awesome next step in this series! The final pieces of the puzzle at the end were great - even if I did successfully guess one of them.

The true ending made me cry and I thought it was beautiful.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for the Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) of Advocate by Daniel M. Ford.

Actual rating 3.5
This series leaves me feeling somewhat conflicted. On one hand, I love the world that Ford has built here! The magic system is quite interesting, and many of the side characters are super loveable. On the other hand, one of the characters in the books that is hardest to love is Aelis herself. She is SUCH a spoiled 20some year old rich kid! And the way she treats her friends is enough to drive a reader to madness. The pacing these books also tends to suffer in the middle, and this one in particular felt very slow as Aelis meandered around trying to solve her problems. Also, Tun was hardly in this one, which was definitely a point against it in my book. However, I just can't give up on these books! Aelis and her struggles ARE quite compelling, so I will certainly be checking out any future installments in this series, if there are any.

Picking up where the last book left off, we find Aelis on her way back to the city she misses so much to be the advocate for another Warden accused of some heinous crimes. While I love seeing Aelis protecting Lone Pine and the residents there, I surprisingly enjoyed her trek into the city. Seeing her in her element and learning about who she used to be before Lone Pine gave new insight into Aelis and made me like her even more.

I love this series, the world-building, and the characters. We have plenty of action-packed and emotional moments, and I can't wait to see what Aeilis will be in the middle of next!

Advocate picks up immediately after Necrobane ends. Aelis has been recalled from her Lone Pine posting to act as investigator for crimes leveled against her mentor and fellow warden Bardun Jacques.

I’ve enjoyed The Warden quite a bit, Necrobane even more, and Advocate even more than that. Switching settings entirely for a third book is a bold move, especially accompanied by big shifts in cast, but it works beautifully here. I loved seeing Aelis in her native environment, which is just as dangerous as Lone Pine. This gave me fresh insight into her rough adjustment to the rural setting of the previous books.

The cast is once again the highlight. Mihil, Aelis’s gnome assistant, is a great addition. Even relatively short cameos like Aelis’s sister, flesh the world and story out. I must say that I was sad that Tun played such a small role in this volume. I maintain that the relationship between Aelis and Tun is one of the best examples of platonic friendship I’ve seen in fantasy.

A marvelously enjoyable, readable series. I read in another review that this was contracted as a trilogy, but I hope there will be more.

Aelis de Lenti was an Earl’s daughter who had done very well in the magical school and became a Warden (paper). Unfortunately she was assigned to a small village for her first two years, but proved herself. Now she is called to be an Advocate (hard from Tor) which brings her to Lascenise where legendary Warden Bardun Jacques, her mentor, has been accused of murdering another wizard. Unfortunately there is a deep plot within wizardly circles. Aelis is attacked on the way to Lascenise and things get more dangerous when she arrives. Her mentor is in a dungeon, where the horrible conditions might kill him before his trial. This is the best tale in Daniel M. Ford's series so far. I really love the series.

This third in the series is a winner. So far our main character has shown that she can think on her feet, has a sense of duty and hides more skills than others realize. Aelis must defend her beloved professor, find a way to break a curse and manage to stay alive while assassins are everywhere. The characters in this series will stay vivid in your mind long after you put this book down. The storyline gets more interesting with each book and you won't want it to end. Friends found along the way show up again. Has some romance but not overdone. There is so much more to be done that the series must continue.
I received this book from Netgalley and I thank the author and publisher for making it available. The opinions are my own.

Ahoy there mateys! This is the third book in the Warden series.  Aelis de Lenti has been sent back to civilization and her old alma mater to help defend her mentor against a murder charge.  Aelis is thrilled to be back in the city but intimidated by the enormity of the tasks set before her.

While I did overall enjoy this book, there were some issues I had with it that felt similar to those from book two.  What I enjoyed about the first book was how character driven it was.  Book two then opened up the world a bit more and it happens again here.  I found I didn't' really care for descriptions of the city's automatons, buildings, wines, or clothes.  Politics gets more attention here and, frankly, its just boring.  Power for the sake of power.  Not a lot makes sense upon reflection.

Also, Aelis NEVER really has a plan.  It is supposed to be her modus operandi but I wish she would have growth in this area.  She took forever to figure things out.  Also I feel like so many of her solutions were to fling money at the problems.  Aelis doesn't want to be known for her family but uses those family connections at the drop of a hat.  She treats her friends with discourtesy.  She seems to have become rather hateful and lost those gains she made in Long Pine.  Also her greatest hardship seemed to be losing some sleep.

Aelis did so much at the last minute and with little thought.  The pacing was extremely slow in the middle.  I wanted Aelis to make plans with her friends and work together instead of running around all over the place.  I did like two gnomes in this.  One was at the fashion store and the other became Aelis' sidekick.

I am not sure if another book is planned as most crew are discussing this being the end of the trilogy.  A big long-range plan was set-up at the end though so who knows.  I will read another book in this series if one is written.  Arrrr!

3.5 rounded down

This finale shattered me.

The Advocate is everything I hoped for and feared. Aelis is changed, scarred, stronger, and burdened by the cost of everything she’s done. This book doesn’t hold back. It’s dark, intense, and brimming with heartbreaking choices.

The final book brings the emotional stakes front and center. There’s magic, yes, and plenty of it, but it’s the weight of leadership, the pain of survival, and the cost of defiance that takes center stage. Ford wraps up this trilogy with a mix of triumph and tragedy that feels utterly earned.

No spoilers, but… the final chapters left me both wrecked and in awe.

✨ Standout Themes: Consequence, sacrifice, loyalty
🛑 Content Warnings: War, death, emotional trauma, moral conflict
⭐️ Rating: 4.75/5
Would I recommend? Wholeheartedly. This is a finale that delivers everything a character-driven epic should.

Aelis is back again! Daniel M. Ford returns to the world we first explored in The Warden and Necrobane, and damn if Advocate isn’t another stellar entry in the series. At the end of Necrobane, Warden Aelis de Lenti had been notified that Bardun Jacques, her mentor from her warden training days, was arrested for murder. Word came to the frontier town of Lone Pine that the Archmagister has requested Aelis return to the city of Lascenise to serve as his Advocate, a role supplemental to his lawyer, and a position that can only be filled by another Warden. She must help to search for information that can prove his innocence, or he will most likely be put to death.

Aelis is loathe to leave her post behind, even if she only intends for it to be temporary. There are many things in Lone Pine that require her near-constant attention, and the people there have finally come to fully trust in her presence and skill. She’s almost starting to think of her sheep-shit-scented tower as home. Decent progress for a rich socialite trained as a Necromancer, really. But Bardun Jacques is the man who is most responsible for Aelis’s success as a student at the Lyceum, so she begins to pack her things for the long journey. She reassures the people that she has come to love that she’ll be back as soon as she can, hopefully with more answers for one particular person, and a particularly difficult problem that’s been plaguing her since Necrobane.

Aelis’s trip with back south to Lascenise with fellow Warden Amadin is interrupted when their carriage is attacked. This attempt on her life helps Aelis to realize that there are far bigger things at stake than just the career of one old wizard. She’s going to have to choose her allies carefully if she’s going to succeed and survive. Being back on familiar ground can only serve as so much of an advantage when there’s a full-blown conspiracy of theft and assassination coming to light. Still, she’s grown a lot during her time at her station in Lone Pine, and a Warden with three schools of magic at her disposal is nothing to mess with, unless you have a great deal of power and influence to wield yourself.

Daniel M. Ford continues to be a powerhouse of a fantasy writer. As he delves into more of Aelis’s history (academic and otherwise), he showcases more of a spectacular magic school and its surrounds. The Lyceum is every bit as wondrous as you would want a magical college to be, complete with a library that rivals those found in The Name of the Wind and Shadow of the Torturer. His combat scenes are tight, well-choreographed, and intense, and his worldbuilding remains top-notch. I loved every page of Advocate, and I hope that you do as well.

Advocate hits store and library shelves on April 22nd. Get ready. And hope, like I do, that there’s more to come.

My utmost thanks as always to Netgalley and Tor for an eARC in exchange for a fair review.

This review originally appeared here: https://swordsoftheancients.com/2025/04/14/advocate-a-review/

It was interesting to see Aelis in her "natural" environment. To see the type of life that she lived, and it made so much sense now why she had such a hard time adjusting to Lone Pine. The story has definitely left room for the series to grow, and I hope we met some of the characters again. I really enjoyed reading about Bardun Jaques and would love to see more of his backstory at some point.

My thanks to NetGalley for making an eARC of this book available to me for my review.

This series just keeps getting better. The character keeps growing, the problems get bigger, and the magic and action keep us enthralled. We get some recurring support characters, but we also get to see the main character in her home territory and dealing with the politics and administration of both the Wardens and her old school. And then she also get to reconnect with old friends and family, and even makes some new friends. Looking forward to seeing where this series takes us next.

I’ve been with this series since the first book and I can honestly say that I’ve enjoyed all three of them. Daniel Ford definitely has a winner with this trilogy.
In this book, Aelis needs to leave her quaint little town to go back to the big city. Back to the university to help a former teacher accused of murder.
After seeing Aelis in her little town, it was an interesting change to see her in civilization. Back to where she began.
One thing Ford does well is creating a setting that feels real and lived in. His world building is top notch.
Another good thing that can be said is his characters. They are all a bunch of well rounded and eclectic characters that you live to see come onto the page.
There are only two downsides to this book.
The first is, about halfway through the book, it slowed a bit. He finished strong, though.
The second is, that at the moment, this is the last book in this series.
I would really love for there to be more.

This series is so completely underrated in the fantasy community and I just feel like it needs a big shout out for being amazing, especially since this third installment is actually my favorite yet. I thought The Warden was a fantastic series opener that introduced a spectacularly cool world and magic system and Necrobane was a solid read that was brought down somewhat by a sequence that reminded me of the Tom Bombadil section of The Lord of the Rings (a personal hatred of mine). Advocate takes us in a whole new direction with a whole new setting and characters, which made this feel extremely fresh and exciting!

Aelis has been called back to Cabal Keep in the city of Lascenise where she is to act as the advocate for Archmagister Bardun Jacques, her former mentor and one of the greatest Wardens of all time as he stands trial for murder. In this world murder by magical means of another magic user is a crime punishable by death, even if one does happen to basically be a living legend. Jacques specifically requested Aelis because he knew she would be a tenacious pain in the ass and solve the puzzle surrounding this situation. You see, Bardun Jacques did commit the crime he was accused of, but he was in the midst of investigating a secretive underground group of wizards who have been smuggling magical artifacts. It seems that the culprits are likely very well connected and this conspiracy may go all the way to the top of the magical food chain. It’s clear from the outset that the odds are stacked against Aelis de Lenti and she is repeatedly warned away from meddling, lest her career be irreparably harmed despite her weighty family name. 

My long time readers know at this point that I simply cannot resist a good mystery or investigative element to any of my books and Advocate most definitely fulfills this most loved blending of genres. Aelis ends up in some seedy areas with shady characters, she commits some crimes of her own, and even foils several assassination attempts during the course of her investigation. She isn’t above getting her hands dirty and I like that it shows her greasing palms with some cold hard coinage and making use of her many skills and her many friends. In what I thought was a realistic and reasonable reaction, her closest friend Miralla points out that Aelis just keeps asking for more from the people around her without considering how her needs impact them. It's good for a character to have consequences for their constant use and abuse of friends.

This is definitely my favorite of the three installments and I’m really hoping for more because the ending of this opened up a whole new level of subterfuge and complexity for the next book. There were some lovely resolutions to plot points from previous books and though I missed certain characters like Tun and Pip, I loved all the new ones that were introduced. It was cool to see Aelis in her element, attending dinner parties, snooping through libraries, and generally making a nuisance of herself. She remains a strong character, unapologetic for both her title and wealth, and I admire her determination to make her Warden position something she truly earned and not something anyone could say was merely given to her. I have my fingers crossed for several more books set in this world!

Reading these books was so great! I really enjoyed the first one, and I was really excited to see where Aelis' story would continue. I loved seeing where Necrobane was going, and then Advocate was really interesting, taking place in her hometown, and I enjoyed getting to know it.

Lone Pine is pretty isolated. After the events of the first book, with the necromantic threat, just the implications of it, that's a looming threat. I didn't know how she was going to deal with it, or if it's the series-long conflict, or if it was going to be resolved in Necrobane, and I had to keep reading to find out!

I love Aelis and Maurenia's relationship. They were cute in the first book with their initial interest, but now they're having extended time as a couple, and I had such a great time watching them work to develop the parameters and rules of their relationship.

Aelis had built a life in Lone Pine, so having to come back to Lascenise to deal with a murder charge against her mentor, of course she's going to do it, but it's big upheaval. Not to mention the stress of trying to prove that he was innocent of the charges, and everything else that she had to deal with, including Maurenia's situation. I had a blast watching her investigate!

Loved reading these books, and I can't wait to read more by Daniel M. Ford!