I’m really glad I reread the first two books before starting this one. This series does not believe in hand holding regarding past events. It makes for a super fast paced read. I love the characters and the character and relationship growth. This book, and the trilogy, feel so timely even though the worlds aren’t ours. The only thing that didn’t really work for me was the introduction to a new Earth that wasn’t in the first two. I might like it better on a reread but because there were already so many different places and people to keep track of, it never really yelled for me. Highly recommend this entire series.

Book Review: A Ruin, Great and Free by Cadwell Turnbull
Genre: Speculative Fiction / Afrofuturism / Supernatural Thriller
Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5)

Cadwell Turnbull delivers a masterclass in speculative fiction with A Ruin, Great and Free—a searing, layered, and unrelentingly powerful sequel that expands the universe of No Gods, No Monsters while deepening its emotional and political resonance. This is the kind of book that doesn't just entertain; it provokes, illuminates, and lingers.

Summary:
Picking up threads from the first novel, A Ruin, Great and Free weaves a more complex tapestry of secret societies, supernatural beings, and global revolution. The world is now aware of monsters, and the resulting chaos fractures societies, relationships, and ideologies. Multiple perspectives—each distinct, each fully human (or otherwise)—collide as old power structures collapse and new ones rise. The book explores the consequences of visibility, rebellion, and myth.

Strengths:
Narrative Ambition: Turnbull juggles timelines, POVs, and metaphysical dimensions without ever losing narrative control. It’s intricately constructed yet incredibly readable—a rare balance.

Thematic Depth: Colonialism, liberation, identity, memory, surveillance—Turnbull doesn’t just name-check these issues, he embeds them into the marrow of his story. The title isn’t just poetic; it’s a thesis.

Worldbuilding: The mythology is rich and original, blending Caribbean folklore, science fiction, and cosmic horror into something that feels both ancient and dangerously modern.

Emotional Resonance: Whether it’s familial grief, romantic tension, or ideological conflict, Turnbull never forgets the human cost. The characters are vivid, flawed, and unforgettable.

Literary Style: The prose is lyrical without being indulgent—sharp when it needs to cut, tender when it needs to comfort. Turnbull writes like someone who’s read widely and deeply, and it shows.

Weaknesses:
For some, the nonlinear structure and multiple storylines might demand more attention than typical genre fare. But the payoff is worth the effort, and it rewards a close read.

Bottom Line:
A Ruin, Great and Free is not just a great sequel—it’s a statement of purpose. Turnbull proves himself one of the most important voices in speculative fiction today, blending intellect, imagination, and heart in equal measure. If No Gods, No Monsters was the spark, this is the full blaze.

A Ruin, Great and Free is an unexpected culminating installment that both suites its series namesake, Convergence, and is a significant departure from the first two books. This is a series where community is not only a character, but the main protagonist. We've progressed from learning about the players, through the forming of their community, and finally we see a community fight for its existence, and importantly, how a community persists in the aftermath of tragedy.

This starts as a series about humanity in a world with werewolves and tech mages and incomprehensible gods. With this book, things get weird. We dive into ontology and metaphysics of a sprawling pantheon with its own power struggles amongst the gods. Reading it, I could see the lines of how the themes and project of the earlier books leads us to this one, and yet it's not the third and final book that I was expecting, and in some ways wanted, for this series. Cadwell Turnbull is fantastic at capturing small, simple moments that pack such a wallop of humanity, sorrow, and compassion, and this book largely takes a step back from the small and goes big. For a final book, there is so much new introduced that it can be overwhelming and distracting at times. This makes for some mind blowing moments and implications, but also isn't what I originally loved about these books.

Overall, I struggle with writing this review. The first two books are all time favorites for me, and this one is not there (yet), but at the same time I may have even more thoughts after this book than the others. It still has Turnbull's thoughtful, powerful-through-its-simplicity style. It wraps up the many, many threads of this series in a satisfyingly ambiguous way. Despite my internal conflict between what I wanted this book to be and what this book is, it is a good book, and strong ending, to a great series.

A Ruin Great and Free is the third book in the Convergence Saga trilogy by author Cadwell Turnbull. (I’ve read and reviewed the first two books as well — here and here). The title appears more than halfway through the book in the in the midst of a monster fight as Alex (also known as Amethyst) squares off to fight her mother / not mother. Alex is crying and has blood on her face. “She is a canvas dripping with wet paint”, Turnbull writes, “a ruin, great and free.”

That scene is indicative of the whole series. Turnbull writes with great skill and knows how to turn a phrase. He knows how to build a story and people it with characters who draw you right in. And this story - the monster fight - is one of many across multiple universes that are woven together in this series.

I wrote about the first book that it was “beautifully written and keeps you turning the pages to find out what happens next - and to figure out what the heck is going on.” The same held true for the second book. The beautiful writing and interest to see how this all turns out carry through this third book too.

The mix of human stories, monster stories, god stories, and the combinations between them, across the multiverse, can be hard to keep track of for a reader. But the great writing and intriguing ideas has kept me coming back.

The books in this series are concerned with a lot of notions but how to build community seems to emerge across the series as chief among them. In A Ruin Great and Free the monsters have separated themselves from humans for safety and are building community in a rebuilt ghost town they call Moon.

The community supports itself through banding together into cooperatives to produce products they are able to magically transport into human society, hoping to keep humans from finding them. Humans don’t like monsters and there are humans who would bring violence to Moon.

Later in the book we observe a legal proceeding among the gods. It’s hard to convey what’s at stake there in a short review but suffice it to say that we learn more about the community of gods in this book than we have so far throughout the series.

The book did not end the way I thought it might, but it was a satisfying conclusion. And with that end comes the end to this series of books that is challenging to read but really well written. The series raises issues and explores concepts that really make you think.

I raised mild criticism of the second book for its dense plotting, and if anything, it’s gotten denser with this third book. But this book benefits from building a conclusion from the characters introduced in books 1 and 2. So, even though the stories come fast and furious, you aren’t trying to understand who all the characters are (though I did have to go back and skim books 1 and 2 a couple of times to jog my memory).

I don't know what I was expecting from this book, the last instalment in this sprawling, mindbending, multiverse-spanning saga, but I did not expect it to blow my mind in the very first chapter. A bold, audacious opening and from that point on, I could barely put it down.
All these lives and stories intertwining, all the monsters and humans, all the gods and mages, it all comes together for a profoundly moving conclusion I could not have predicted and which brought me to tears several times as I was reading. Turnbull writes about communities, about the way people are, together, the way they can help and destroy each other in equal measure, and he does it without ever losing sight of the power and importance of individual characters. This is a thrilling and profound conclusion to the Convergence Saga.