Book Review: The Discord of Gods (Book #5 in the A Chorus of Dragons series) by Jenn Lyons

Right off the bat, I have to say that I definitely went into reading The Discord of Gods, not only with a great deal of anticipation, but with a great deal of curiosity as to how Jenn Lyons was going to end the A Chorus of Dragons series as a whole in a truly satisfying way. Thankfully, I’m thrilled to say that I thought that The Discord of Gods served as a fantastic and incredibly intriguing ending to the series.

One of the things that I liked the most about The Discord of Gods is the fact that unlike the other books in the A Chorus of Dragons series, the plot of this book is told in a more linear manner instead of jumping around in time with various characters experiencing flashbacks like they did in the previous books. Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy that aspect of Lyons’ writing for the A Chorus of Dragons series; but all of the jumping around in time definitely made it hard for me to follow the plot of the books at times. It could also make it challenging for me to completely understand what was happening with each of the characters at times in the previous books in the series. That being said, it also seems kind of weird to me that Lyons waited until the last book in the A Chorus of Dragons series to tell the plot of the book in a more linear manner. However, it seemed like Lyons used a different structure to write the plot of every book in the series, and I think she did that very well for the most part with each book; because I have to say that I definitely love this series very much.

Lyons definitely did a fantastic job of wrapping up all of the characters’ storylines for the most part, in my opinion. That being said, one of the very few complaints that I have about The Discord of Gods is that I felt like Lyons left things regarding Qown and Galen’s relationship somewhat unresolved. Plus, while I loved Lyons’ writing for the Janel/Kihrin/Tereath relationship in this book, I do wish that the readers had gotten to see Janel have the baby. I also felt like Lyons did a better job of having Kalindra interact with the other characters in this book, compared to The House of Always, where I felt like Kalindra and her storyline was splintered off from most of the other characters in the book; even though I also enjoyed her storyline in The House of Always, too. That being said, I did think that the epilogue of the book was both incredibly intriguing and rather confusing at the same time. It kind of left me wondering if Lyons was trying to leave things open for potential follow-up books that are set in the A Chorus of Dragons series world.

 

Book Review: The House of Always (Book #4 in the A Chorus of Dragons series) by Jenn Lyons (Spoilers)

Right off the bat, I would like to start off this review by mentioning that The Memory of Souls ended up being my favorite book in Jenn Lyons’ A Chorus of Dragons series so far when I read it. For that reason, I definitely went into reading The House of Always with a tremendous amount of anticipation and high expectations. After having read The House of Always, I’m thrilled to say that I thought that Lyons definitely topped herself with this book.

 

One of the many things that I’ve really come to love about the A Chorus of Dragons series is the fact that Lyons has found new ways to carry out the plot of each book in the series, and I was really looking forward to seeing how Kihrin was going to carry out the plan that he had come up with in The Memory of Souls to confront Vol Karoth. In this case, Kihrin is trapped in Vol Karoth’s prison all by himself. Naturally, Kihrin carrying out his plans turned out to be much easier said than done. The second plot deals with the current threat to Quur, which none of the characters really know about. There are also several subplots throughout the book that are explored through the missions, tasks, and memories of the characters that Lyons does a great job of conveying to the reader that I felt were all important for the most part. The other part of the book’s plot takes place in the Lighthouse within Shadrag Gor; otherwise known as the House of Always, hence the book’s title. I thought it was really interesting to have all of the characters there trying to rescue Kihrin, and having their dirty secrets being revealed in the process.

Book Review: The Memory of Souls (Book #3 in the A Chorus of Dragons series) by Jenn Lyons (Spoilers)

Right off the bat, I have to say that as someone who has been obsessed with Jenn Lyons’ A Chorus of Dragons series ever since I read the first book in the series, The Ruin of Kings last year, The Memory of Souls is definitely my favorite book in the series so far. That being said, here are my thoughts on this book.
 
While I admittedly thought that Lyons stumbled a little bit with The Name of All Things, The Memory of Souls was definitely a return to form that got back to the things that had immediately made me fall in love with the A Chorus of Dragons series when I read The Ruin of Kings. For starters, it was great to see the focus of the series be back on Kihrin in this book after being sidelined by Janel and Qown in The Name of All Things. That being said, a variety of great new characters were introduced in The Memory of Souls, and I ultimately thought that Lyons did a much better job of introducing the new P.O.V. characters and featuring them in this book and incorporating them into the storylines that have been taking place throughout the course of the series so far than she did with introducing Janel and Qown in The Name of All Things.
 
When it comes to my thoughts on the characters that were either introduced for the first time in this book, or were featured as a P.O.V. character for the first time in this book after having been previously introduced earlier in the series; I would say that Teraeth is definitely my favorite out of all the new P.O.V. characters in this book. I thought that Lyons definitely did a fantastic job of using Teraeth’s chapters as an opportunity to further develop him as a character, and his relationship with Kihrin in this book. Plus, I felt like the interactions between Teraeth and Kihrin really enhanced the overall emotional tone of The Memory of Souls.