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The House of Always  By  cover art

The House of Always

By: Jenn Lyons
Narrated by: Lauren Fortgang, Vikas Adam
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Publisher's summary

For fans of Brandon Sanderson and Patrick Rothfuss, The House of Always is the fourth epic fantasy in Jenn Lyons' Chorus of Dragons series that began with The Ruin of Kings.

What if you were imprisoned for all eternity?

In the aftermath of the Ritual of Night, everything has changed.

The Eight Immortals have catastrophically failed to stop Kihrin's enemies, who are moving forward with their plans to free Vol Karoth, the King of Demons. Kihrin has his own ideas about how to fight back, but even if he's willing to sacrifice everything for victory, the cost may prove too high for his allies.

Now they face a choice: Can they save the world while saving Kihrin, too? Or will they be forced to watch as he becomes the very evil they have all sworn to destroy.

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books

©2021 Jenn Lyons (P)2021 Macmillan Audio

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one of the best books I've ever read

overall a great book, and an excellent series. problem the best executed love triangle I've ever heard of.
but beyond that its not often a book looks you in the eye and succinctly breaks you down and put you back together. I needed to hear Lady D'Talus's monolog. I have openly wept for characters in books before, but this is the first time a book has made me cry for myself. Jenn Lyons has be solidly set as one of my favorite authors now even if the rest of the series weren't excellent. This will likely be my favorite book of all time. I eagerly await the finale.

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A bit stranger than the others

For me this book was a bit of an odd one out, ending was good and made me excited for the next book but this one was meh. The story jumps as it retells itself from past to present from each person's story. Possibly minor spoilers ahead, but everyone is very horny and it reads more of a fan fiction rather than the perspective of someone inside the mind of a dark God. Hope you like Kirin staring at legs

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it's a book with an agenda.

I mad either to this book in the series bc rhe plot was good and I didn't care for the random relationship scenes. but by this book there is more time spend on who likes who and what relationship is important. and who has what sexual preference than anything else. totally don't know where the plot line has gone but it is def gone. not worth finishing. first book I've ever read that every single person in the whole story has to go through a life altering problem with who they want to sleep with and coming out of the closet.

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This story is weak

There is no permanence do death, the writer lazily kills and revives characters every book. It makes the deaths meaningless. The plot is also very simple and overly horny. Overall just a mediocre author. The narration is great and the only thing that saves this series.

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Too much queer focus

This is a pretty great fantasy/ fiction story. The author then decided to go into gay and bisexual relationships. These queer intrigues really did nothing for the story.

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solid book with weak spots

the first three books in this series are great for the world building and lore and unique perspective. this one carries on the same way with the unique perspective, and there is some world building and lore, but the sex scenes and added talking about every relationship nonstop, many times at unlikely and unrealistic times make for a cringy and hard to digest volume. I keep coming back for the originality and lore, but I keep struggling not to quit reading because of the forced dialogue and uncharacteristic characteristics. here's to hoping that the last book in the series harkens back to the original three books and leaves most of the failures of this one behind.

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Everyone is shipped up! :)

This book took awhile to get used to. We're back to Senera documenting the story, and it's not quite as fun as when Thurvishar does it. She is an acquired taste with her storytelling methods. Although, I do appreciate that in her book, she does write down the locations AND when things are happening with each new chapter heading. It's both entertaining and helps keep things straight. Senera is still working for Relos Var. So while Thurvishar's stories have been documented for Tyensto to read, Senera's have been for Relos Var. Even if she starts the book off by saying that she means to betray him. It's not really a spoiler at this point. Now we have to figure out WHY she might turn on him. And as always, the author is kind enough to write a comprehensive recap of the series so far leading up to this fourth book, and it is available for reading at the start of this book. It is built seamlessly into the story enough where the recap is actually very helpful reading even if you're reading the books back-to-back.

As always, the following review will contain spoilers for the previous books, because it will be impossible to NOT mention some main points that have transpired since.

Content notes include death, depression, violence, mentions of grooming, mentions of domestic and emotional abuse, pregnancy, internalized fatphobia, and body dysphoria.

We see a lot of returning characters in this book that we learned were NOT dead. The gods, however, who died in the last battle are still very much dead - the people you kind of want to see returning to life the most, if only for their powers. But we do see the return of Galen D'Mon (once believed to be Kihrin's brother in the first book only to find out he is actually Kihrin's nephew), Galen's wife Sheloran, the mimic who captured Kihrin in the first book called Talon, and Kalindra who is a Black Brotherhood assassin Kihrin had been infatuated with on the island of Ynisthana in the first book. All these returning character were more properly introduced in book one. And in all honesty, I had no idea what large roles they would play in this series when we had first met them? I even completely forgot about Kalinda being sent off on assignment in the first book, but we learn what she's been up to since then.

It's actually quite genius that the characters have returned to the storyline so prominently because all of them have a sort of connection to Kihrin and that's key to everything that's happening, because they are both his greatest strength, but also his weakness. The present-day timeline is that Senera winds up doing a large spell that winds up tying the mystical and magical Lighthouse of Shadrag Gor to Vol Karoth's prison in Kharas Gulgoth. The Lighthouse had previously been a place where scholars like Thurvishar can hide away for months at a time, and little time would've passed in the "real" world. It is an enchanted place where Kihrin was also jailed with Talon in the first book.

This book takes place roughly a month after the battle at the Well of Spirals (at the end of book three), and in that last book Kihrin had essentially offered himself up to Vol Karoth and gave Talon his body (to kill and eat). Talon, the mimic, can then impersonate Kihrin fully and Kihrin had a mind to be able to talk to Vol Karoth and...try to come up with a deal? I admit, the plan was very fuzzy and just sounds like a terrible plan I'm shocked Thurvishar agreed to go along with. But the reality is, Kihrin is currently physically dead and now we're seeing the ramifications of that choice. This is Senera's plan to save him. Because as much as she would never, ever admit it, Senera does have a heart and cares deeply for those around her.

We do jump between storylines where we see the occupants at the Lighthouse (Teraeth, Janel, Thurvishar, Senera, Qown, Galen, Sheloran, Kalinda, Xivan, Talea, and Talon) and soul!Kihrin in Vol Korath's mind prison fighting Vol Karoth. It's a battle of wills and memories? For some reason Kihrin and Vol Karoth try to prove themselves justified in why friends may or may not be important and they use the Lighthouse's occupants' memories to tell this story. There's something involved with telepathy or something? The mechanics of all this is beyond me, but the storytelling aspect of this is fascinating because it works to catch us up on Galen, Sheloran, Qown, Xivan, Talea, and Kalindra's stories since we last saw them. Kihrin's argument is that having friends is important and they can be trusted, while Vol Karoth (drawing on his experience in his past life as S'arric) was betrayed immensely by his friends and most of all, his brother Rev'arric (also known now as Relos Var).

Honestly, the back and forth between the stories is both interesting AND boring at the same time. It's like we do miss a bit of the momentum we had from the third book and now we're trapped in one place all over again starting anew to figure out what's going on. I have never read a book with characters endlessly drinking as much tea as the characters in this book. I don't have a problem with them constantly drinking tea, but I feel like they don't go to the bathroom enough considering all the tea they're consuming. But that's really neither here nor there. Just my observation.

Important things we learn from this book is that Galen is no longer the scared and abused boy we met in the first book. He is a married man, and while he is still only attracted to men, he very clearly loves his wife Sheloran. She's the only reason he was Returned from death at all, because she had put in the request while Sheloran's parents had put in the request for her to be Returned. Galen and Sheloran had both been killed by Kihrin's mother after her rampage killing most of the D'Mon household. I can't even say her killings weren't justified after all she went through as their slave? But she did kill everyone in the WORST of ways, so it's all a mess where she's concerned. Also, the aftermath with her and Therin is just...added mess. Anyways, back to Galen...he had the BEST speech in this book, or maybe even this series so far. It was at a funeral for a friend and when he told everybody off, it was GLORIOUS.

There is a mystery of sorts where the count of people in the Lighthouse was always off by one, but not immediately explained. The revelation surprised me. I would've never guessed. Although it is kind of funny I guessed a pregnancy before it was revealed, even though THIS revelation had absolutely nothing to do with a pregnancy at all.

And in other things I would not have guessed, the last book revealed how Xaltorath came to be and I AM NOT OKAY. All this time we were seeing Xivan go after the witch-queen Suless because Suless had killed Xivan's husband and son. But MOST IMPORTANTLY in the last book, we see how Suless becomes Xaltorath.

Which brings up a further confusing storyline into the series, and it's something I've always hated in stories - time travel. Like, I LOATHE time travel books. I don't seek out the stories. I can't stand them. But in this case, the actual bits ABOUT the time travel are minimal and nothing you should really think about too hard because it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things? The gist of all of this is that this series takes place in this one timeline, and Xaltorath has the knowledge of how to reset timelines so if things don't go their way, they can just have another redo. Things like how far back the time travel goes and what that means whenever characters get reincarnated and how everything is affected is...not really answered? So, like I said. Don't try too hard to piece it all out. You'll only get more confused. The only relevant piece of news for now is that this means there are TWO Xaltorath's in the current timeline and you can bet both will only want to be the single Xaltorath, while not letting their other self live.

Cornerstones play a big part in this series with cornerstones being powers in their own right, but also the solution to heal the dragons and their insanity. Do I understand how cornerstones REALLY work? Not really. But it's just another thing in this book where I just kind of nod and keep reading. There's a lot of that in this book, but at least I can focus in on the relationships happening even if I understand nothing else.

Fun things that happen in this book is that the flirting gets dialed up to an 11 here (on a scale of 1 through 10). There's a LOT of couples in this book where you're rooting for all of them to have a HEA by the end of the series. But is that realistic when the book is marketed as a fantasy and is not a Romance book outright (with the capital R)? I feel like you just wind up shipping everyone, even if the way the book goes about detailing some of these relationship is a bit...off and I want to give the author a bit of a side eye. More on that later.

There's so much flirting in this book, I almost didn't get through all the Kihrin, Teraeth, and Janel scenes because every time they were in a scene together, I was just YELLING. Their flirting is so cute. And look, this series is not explicit and the most you can really hope for is that characters kiss or have sex off the page, but they definitely keep me entertained with how much they like each other and show their affection.

I would be remiss not to point out Qown and his scenes. He's the one person who is most affected by Relos Var's plans and had once viewed the man as a father figure and someone he just really looked up to. More than Senera or Janel, Qown was incredibly loyal to Var and wanted to do nothing more than to please him. This book shows just how emotionally abused Qown was by the man in question, that even after Var had gaeshed (enslaved) Qown, Qown still went back to him because he thought that was the right thing to do and isn't that ultimately the most devastating thing? Qown is a sweetheart and really just one of my favorite characters in this series. He's been hurt so much, physically and emotionally. All he deserves is true happiness. All the characters in this series have been through mess with even messier relatives, but Qown's story is probably one of the worst because Relos Var PRETENDS to be a good person and like he cares about Qown's wellbeing when the only person Var really cares about is himself and what he believes "saving all humanity" to mean. Everyone else at least is upfront about the way they treated their children.

Which brings me to Qown and his identity. Qown was perfectly happy to take the vow of the Vishai faith to remain celibate. But we have learned that the Vishai faith is something Relos Var only put together under a pseudonym and it was to have a large number of witches under him who would do as he says. Help protect a cornerstone? Have a lot of people under his control? All the above? I'm not sure. But I think it was a way to stroke his ego, that people would look to him as a teacher and for him to feel better about everyone hanging onto his every word when that was something he resented his brother S'arric for.

In any case, Qown doesn't know how to handle Galen flirting with him, or any other man flirting with him. And that's understandable. What makes me uncomfortable reading this book is how much everyone seems to be trying to PRESSURE Qown into a relationship, to kiss someone, to have sex. Qown has grown up in Quur, a place where queer relationship may not have been illegal but certainly something people did behind closed doors and not out in public. He doesn't know how to handle the attention of people flirting with him, much less men he finds hot. The constant nagging from everyone for Qown to get together with someone/anyone and for Galen to throw a bit of a hissy fit being all hurt or whatever that Qown doesn't return his affections within the short(-ish) amount of time they've known each other just rubs me the wrong way. I don't love how Qown was treated from anyone. Maybe only Caless is the one to see Qown correctly.

And adding to the pressures of sexual attraction in this book, the first more...explicit attempt at a sex scene came off as more of a sexual assault scene for the sapphic characters (Xivan who is maybe bi? and Talea who is a lesbian). I don't think that was necessary at all actually. Sure, the point was that Xivan and Talea needed to split up for the plot or what have you, but there's a whole lot that didn't sit right with me in that regard. I LIKE Xivan and Talea together, but this whole scene where Xivan hurts Talea during sex paired with how Qown was treated in this book was a bit on the icky side for me and I'm surprised. More thought was put into the previous books when it came to gender identity and what consent means. This book went way too far. And yes what happened in the last book between Therin and Khaeriel was actually pretty awful in its implications of what transpires between them, but we didn't SEE any of that in any sort of explicit detail that's in your face like it is here.

As far as the audiobook narration goes, Talon's voice sounds way too sickly sweet voiced by Lauren Fortgang here compared to Soneela Nankani who voiced Talon in the first book. Soneela is not back for this series, so we're stuck with how she sounds like here moving forward. I'm not a fan. On a better note it seem like we've come to an agreement on how to pronounce Qown's name in this series and that's with the pronunciation from the audiobook for book three, not book two. And since I'm annoying and follow along with the text while listening to the audiobook, I should point out that Lauren Fortgang makes no noticeable errors reading the footnotes in this book like I had noticed with the audiobook for book two. So, that was great.

I guess the one thing I noticed a lot more with this book is that there's a lot of modern day words and meanings put into this fantasy story than in the previous books. It's not a big problem, but they are strangely noticeable when those sorts of things came up in the story because the times they do, it's all a bit jarring. It's also a bit odd to hear that characters have read Thurvishar's accounting of book one as if it were an in-universe text everyone has read now, instead of something that should be outside it? If that makes sense. I know the book was addressed to Tyentso but it's a bit too meta? But that's a minor pet peeve I didn't know I would have a pet peeve about.

The thing that gets revealed about Kihrin and Vol Karoth makes no sense at all to me at the end when everything was said and done. Because who is he - S'arric, Vol Karoth, or Kihrin? I am confused and I guess we're not getting an answer. I can't figure out at the core, who this person is NOW and how the memories affect all that. I know there's also no time at all for therapy, but I feel like we need to MAKE time because it was a blink and everything was fine and solved and I don't get it. Senera too, if I'm being honest. The reveal towards the end and how that broke her...she never has time to deal with any of it and suddenly she's right as rain and the whole thing feels anticlimactic.

Another question I had is whatever happened to Veixizhau and Nexara? Veixizhau was in Xivan's husband's (Azhen Kaen) harem and had a daughter, Nexara. In the third book it was mentioned they might have been sent to the temple with the Vishai priests. And well, after what happens to them in this book, are we to assume they died? No mentions of them in this book at all and just looks more like a dropped plot point. BUT I REMEMBER.

Not necessarily a plot hole, but I question what size harp Kihrin is lugging around in these stories he's telling. Harps are famously not small instruments and even the smallest size is not insignificant. They are not the size of a piccolo. I have a hard time imagining the scale of carrying a harp everywhere. It seems inconvenient.

The underwater (above water??) city also makes no sense at all. Just the layout and how to get there is baffling to me and I cannot picture it in my head at all. The descriptions of how Kalinda winds up there, and how the pirate crew wind up there seem quite at odds with one another and I couldn't tell you what was going on at all. If only we had drawings of what the author meant, because I can't even begin to describe that city or how it works and functions.

The epilogue in this book is fun, because you know everything is about to go down in the next book since it's the end of the series. The author so far has managed to write quite satisfactory action scenes, and I can imagine things are going to only get much more intense as the series comes to a close. I'm worried too for all my couples and if they'll get their hard fought HEAs! There's two I know I won't have to worry about as much because I am a menace who read the last pages before starting my reread for book one again and committing to actually reading this series. Everyone else is a toss up.

This book is probably my least favorite of the series and definitely took me the longest to read, even by audiobook. The narration here was actually great with Lauren Fortgang and Vikas Adam returning, so I have no complaints in that area. But the story itself was both interesting and not. There were weird lulls where I got bored and it took some pushing through to read it, even though there WAS so much going on in the book but they still couldn't hold my attention like the previous books. This is still a solid book for bringing back old characters and setting up the events for the last book, but out of the four books so far, this book ranks lowest for me.

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Narrative style is bad

This narrative style is beyond confusing and does a disservice to the cohesion of the story. Flashbacks, moving back and forth through time, no problem, but the way in which this was done is far too clever. I frequently found myself rewinding in order to understand at what point in time a narrative was taking place, which completely removed me from the story itself. Unfortunate move for a solid series so far.

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Love the story

I love the story so much as this point. I love her development of characters and how everything weaves together.

The issue I find is only with the love stories. She is pushing the LGBTQ agenda so hard it’s hard not to notice. To me, it seems forced as times or even not needed. I wish she would relax a bit as some parts don’t seem necessary.

Besides that point, I love this series. Excited to start the last one now

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    5 out of 5 stars

wowza

man i love this series more than i can explain. this will always be a recommendation from me.

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