The Hollow Queen

De: Elizabeth Haydon

Narrado por: Kevin T. Collins

Acclaimed author Elizabeth Haydon returns with a heartbreaking tale of love and valor in The Hollow Queen, the eighth installment of her USA Today best-selling Symphony of Ages series that began with Rhapsody.

Beset on all sides by the forces of the merchant emperor Talquist, the Cymrian Alliance finds itself in desperate straits. Rhapsody herself has joined the battle, wielding the Daystar Clarion, leaving her True Name in hiding with her infant son. Ashe tries to enlist the aid of the Sea Mages; within their Citadel of Scholarship lies the White Ivory tower, a spire that could hold the key to unraveling the full extent of Talquist's machinations.

Achmed journeys to the reportedly unassailable palace of Jierna Tal to kill emperor Talquist - all the while knowing that even if he succeeds, it may not be enough to stop the momentum of the war. As they struggle to untangle the web of Talquist's treachery, the leaders of the Cymrian alliance are met with obstacles at every turn. Rhapsody soon realizes that the end of this war will come at an unimaginable price: the lives of those she holds dearest.

©2015 Elizabeth Haydon (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

well written

this book has a plot and vast history filled with intrigue. well rounded characters that grab you and pull you into the world of dragons and magic. world bulding at its highest skill and expertly discribed. a fantastic read!

Had to listen

It's the last book I saw, in the series. I couldn't imagine how it was going to have resolution. The story - after it was done- answered most questions and like the title, was a little hollow feeling. I can imagine it must be one of the greatest challenges of writers - to write a series and maintain the excitement of building a story. This final book does well enough. The entire series was absolutely great and worth the time to listen. The last book is ok but I had to listen. I'll miss the characters and hope the writer becomes inspired to write some of them into another tale - after a rest.

a bit too much back story

I like the story and the way everything wrapped up. However, there was too much repetition of the other seven books that made it a little dry and Bland and boring when you wanted to get to what was happening instead.

series has great concepts, execution though...

So the series as a whole has been fairly good, these last couple book however have had some glaring problems. In these last few books which have already been shorter than the previous books, Haydon includes a copious amount of flashbacks, which are quite literally just huge sections copy/pasted from previous books.

The set up for this book seems a bit stale, we've already seen these characters live out their martyr complexes a few times, it's starting to get a bit predictable and the primary antagonist for this story arc is a pretty one dimensional.

The secondary antagonist was actually quite interesting though the Farron/Hrarfah story line was quite dynamic.

This particular book also had some editing issues that weren't present in the earlier books.

None of these problems are so bad I won't get the next book though, and Collins is a magnificent voice actor as always.

A wonderful ending to a stunning story

I enjoyed every minute of the series of stories, in spite of and sometimes because of grisly details. Love, humor, angst and war were appropriately portrayed and strong female characters are much appreciated!