The Chronicles of Ynis Aielle by R. A. Salvatore ends with the third and final book, Bastion of Darkness. In the aftermath of the war against Thalasi, Rhiannon and Bryan are working to find and eliminate as many of the talons as possible. However, Rhiannon is now also dealing with a continuing weakness due to the magical instability Thalasi had unintentionally created. Every time she uses her magic she gets weaker, as do the other wizards as well. In Avalon, Brielle is dealing with a similar issue even as she helps Belexus potentially find a way to defeat the wrath of Mitchell in revenge for the death of Andovar. Her scrying reveals a magic sword hidden in the lair of a dragon that may be able to defeat Mitchell so Belexus sets out to find it in hopes of doing so. What none of them realize is that Thalasi is not entirely defeated and still has some strength left due to his staff of death so when Mitchell manages to capture Rhiannon and take her to Thalasi’s stronghold they all must work together to find a way to rescue her and finally defeat Mitchell and Thalasi.
Honestly this was a good book and a good series but I also did not like it as much as his other books I have read. I feel like the characters were a bit more two-dimensional here in comparison. The main reason I say that is it feels like the characters have less internal struggle in this book. There was more in the previous books so I definitely noticed the lack in this one. I also felt like the story was rather predictable in many ways as I was rarely surprised and saw the ending coming from pretty early on in the book. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing but I was a little disappointed because of it. I tend to prefer books that surprise me. Considering how much it builds almost directly off of the plot of the previous book this plot is fairly predictable overall. Many of the major elements were heavily based on previous events and were pretty obvious because of that. There were only a few things that really surprised me and only one of them was really important. However, once that element was introduced its use was fairly predictable even if its original appearance wasn’t. The one thing I did like was how it felt like everything was properly wrapped up, at least as much as possible anyway. I would have preferred to know more about the aftermath but that is just personal preference. It was well written and I did enjoy it, don’t get me wrong. I just thought it was also fairly predictable and thus not as enjoyable as his other work that I have read. Overall while it was good I don’t think it was great so I am only giving it 3.5 out of 5 stars.
This is a decent example of the fantasy genre so if you are a fan of that you might consider trying it out, especially if you are already a fan of Salvatore. If you are not then I highly doubt this will hold a lot of appeal though you are certainly still welcome to try it. The book and the series are both primarily aimed at adults. In this case though there is very little adult content and only minor adult references so it could potentially be read by readers as young as about fourteen or fifteen. I would recommend that you read the earlier books first though in order to better understand the story. If it still sounds interesting I hope you will consider trying and if you do feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.