Wayfarer’s Keep

Broken Lands Series, Book 3

De: T. A. White

Narrado por: Christa Lewis

Branded a traitor by her people, Shea and her warlord - the fiercely dangerous Fallon - travel to the Pathfinders' seat of power at her father's request, hoping to form an alliance despite the distrust between them. It doesn't take long before Shea and Fallon realize something is dangerously wrong in the place she once called home. Ancient, deadly creatures - gone for hundreds of years, once again walk the lands, awakened from a deep sleep. Worse, it seems the Pathfinders are keeping a secret - one that could destroy them all.

On the brink of battle with each other, the Pathfinders and Trateri must join forces if they hope to defeat the evil at the heart of the Badlands. As the tension rises between the two peoples, and Shea and her family, Shea and Fallon must convince them to overcome their differences if they are to triumph over impossible odds. Because the beasts may be the least of their worries. Sometimes betrayal comes from within, and the most dangerous monsters may be those closest to them.

©2018 Tobey White (P)2019 Tantor

Good ending to series arc

Good ending to a good trilogy.
Shea, Fallon, and the Trateri follow her dad to the Wayfarer’s Keep in hopes of obtaining boomers, and to scope out the Highlands.
Shea knew the Keep was full of secrets - politics, history, weapons, passages. She didn’t know the Pathfinders were broken into factions with deadly infighting.
And the evil in the Badlands grows stronger.

I agree with other reviewers that this is a better, more grownup Shea compared with the first two books. The action and world building in those books offset her character deficiencies. Fallon was never a wimp, but his ruthlessness and focused vision were more clearly defined in this story. Not sure if it’s due to better characterization by the author, or just viewed against this individual story, but rereading the series will come before the audio of The Wind’s Call is released. Smiles. Reading the new ebook next - part of The Broken Lands series, but primary female character is Eve, the Lostling who was working with the Trateri horses.

Lewis’ narration is ok, but her voice is more 30s-40s mature woman, rather than 20s young adult woman.
And why didn’t anyone correct her pronunciation of Shea? It should be “shay”, NOT “shay-yuh”. It got on my nerves. One of the hallmarks of a really great audiobook is how many times I want to listen. Shayyuh wrecks that.

Great Epic

Wow, I couldn’t put it down. I had to get all three books in a row to know the conclusion. It was so full of detail and depths of characters. She leaves you wondering at a little sliver but I’m happy with the conclusion.

Loved the whole series!

This was a great conclusion to the series, it had all the action of the first book, all the political machinations of the second book and we get to see the Keep and some battles, the mystery of the beasts is explained and Shea saves the day! I thought the drama with Shea’s parent was a little odd and unnecessary, they seemed so cold and then when you find out about… well everything it kind of pisses me off how they treated her. But Shea is great, she really goes though some changes in this book, grows up in a way and becomes a leader instead of just going her own way. Fallon is really basically the same except he does a bit better with giving Shea her wings and trusting her not to get dead. Their romance is pretty resolved or at least there is so much else going on that any little squabbling is kinda irrelevant. But it’s all pretty entertaining.

A true storyteller at heart

The saga just gets better and better at each telling. The intricacies of the story, humor and surprising story truly makes this one of the true legends for future readers. You get into the twists and turns that surprise even a long time fan of the giants of fantasy, including Anne McCaffrey, Terry Brooks, and David Eddings. Hurrah for another giant in good storytelling! Thank you!

I really enjoyed this series, so much adventure.

Shaya and Fallan are knee deep in intrigue and monsters. This is the conclusion of the story line, but I see there is more stories to come with the series. I can’t wait. It has been a while since I was really engrossed in a series that I devoured the series as fast as I could. Narrator is has once again changed to the original narrator, again I barely notice because I was so engrossed in the story and both did a great job.

Pronunciation!

The story was wonderful. But some of the words being said: dour=/door?! Primer=/preemer? In the previous book was a different narrator with a more natural cadence.

Satisfying conclusion to the beginning

The story completes the primary theme from the first book. A great example of life and how good and evil are sided by aide. Evil is a point of perspective.
Several loose ends left for the next story. Read and enjoy!

Great conclusion

I absolutely love this series. It’s a great conclusion to Shae and Fallon’s story. They came a long way from where they met in the first book. This book ties up loose ends and answers questions that I didn’t even know I had.

I’m so glad there is another book in this world, and I can’t wait to read about Caden’s story.

Five stars all around

This was an excellent ending (even though I didn’t want it to end!). Such a good series!

Only because the bad parts were glossed over

On the plus side, many of the toxic parts of the series aren’t as present here. Because the Trateri spend the entire book in a loose alliance with the Highlands, we can pretend they aren’t a horde that destroys entire communities, salting the earth so they can’t rebuild, and respecting only physical strength. We can also forget that Fallon obtained his woman by kidnapping, drugging, and teaching her her place via public spanking and domination.

Well, we can almost forget about the misogyny. In this book we have slightly more “strong” women in “leadership” roles. And by that, I mean Sheya’s mom (who’s still under her husband’s control), the witchy Council woman (because the most venomous council member has to be one of the few women with a name/dialogue), and one or two Trateri women who are warriors (even though all chiefs/generals through all three books are male). Sheya herself is elevated to the rank of Battle Queen only because her owner, excuse me, love Fallon deems it so (and we’re reminded this almost never happens and is an honor). So, yeah, you can still fit the women with names/dialogue on one hand and they’re still subordinate to men.

But, on the whole, the toxicity is a lot less than in book 1, allowing the story of this broken world to breathe. I liked the expansion into the Mythologicals, which made the spinoff books 4-5 slightly better than this trilogy, which closes the Sheya/Fallon arc alright.

On the downside, although we get a bit more explanation, I was still left wanting better imagery for the monsters and magic in the world. So, yeah, apparently this isn’t simply an apocalyptic world with nuclear/poison-created beasts. There are mythical creatures like winged horses and centaurs. Not sure I fully understood the canon. This is due to the telling rather than showing writing style. I was especially disappointed at trudging all the way through sixteen hours only for the true villain to be revealed and then easily dispatched after a round of talking. Egads, the talking. There’s a lot of filler, both with the inner and outer monologues, that had me frustrated throughout with the unnnatural dialogue/thought process. This ended up being an okay listen and perhaps I viewed it more favorably because it was in Audible Plus.