Master and Fool (Book of Words Series #3) Book

The prophesy, which was revealed practically in the beginning of the first book finally came to pass. Despite this fact it was not clear up until the middle of this book how exactly things will end: the world was too bleak and gloomy for ordinary happy end.

At this point I have to talk about the whole trilogy. The first book was really good; the series would have its place among the classic of the genre had the last two been on the same level. Unfortunately the second book was plain boring after the first one. The last one was a big improvement, and it came very close to the first one; almost, but not quite.

The characters varied from very interesting to annoying. Nabber is the best character in the series, bar none. He managed to stay interesting through all books, something everybody else failed. Tawl was good in the first book, completely boring in the second, and somewhat good in the last one.

Melli completely falls flat. I have yet to see the more annoying good character in a book. She always comes up as an entitled brat, even while being imprisoned. Speaking about being imprisoned, I think the main and the only purpose she served in the book was being a damsel in distress. At no point she did anything useful at all to try escaping. Instead all other good guys (and even not-so-good woman) kept rescuing her. It is not that the author cannot write strong women: Jack's mother IS a very strong woman; unfortunately she is only shown in flashbacks.

I really cannot say anything - good or bad - about Jack. He serves his purpose in the book well, but that is all. Bodger and Grift provide really good comic relief, if a little annoying at times. Baralis and Maybor are brilliant in the first book and fairly good in the next two. The head of knights would make a very good villain had he been given a POV in the book; without it his motives remain completely unclear through the whole series.

All in all, the first book was very good and this is what kept me reading to the end. Having finished the trilogy, I now also want to read the other fantasy books written by its author.

Coming back to this book, it was a great improvement of the second one, but not as good as the first one. I rated the first one with 4.5 stars, but rounded it down; I give this book 3.5 stars, but round it up, so the whole rating should even out.