A Reaper at the Gates

An Ember in the Ashes, Book 3

By: Sabaa Tahir

Narrated by: Fiona Hardingham, Katherine Lee McEwan, Maxwell Caulfield, Steve West

Length: 15 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's Summary

"Thrilling and hard to put down, readers will absolutely devour Tahir's latest." (BuzzFeed)

An Entertainment Weekly Summer Reads pick!

"The perfect summer read." (The Washington Post)

The highly anticipated third book in number-one New York Times best-selling author Sabaa Tahir's Ember Quartet.

Beyond the Martial Empire and within it, the threat of war looms ever larger.

Helene Aquilla, the Blood Shrike, is desperate to protect her sister's life and the lives of everyone in the Empire. But she knows that danger lurks on all sides: Emperor Marcus, haunted by his past, grows increasingly unstable and violent while Keris Veturia, the ruthless Commandant, capitalizes on the Emperor's volatility to grow her own power - regardless of the carnage she leaves in her path.

Far to the east, Laia of Serra knows the fate of the world lies not in the machinations of the Martial court but in stopping the Nightbringer. But in the hunt to bring him down, Laia faces unexpected threats from those she hoped would help her and is drawn into a battle she never thought she'd have to fight.

And in the land between the living and the dead, Elias Veturius has given up his freedom to serve as Soul Catcher. But in doing so, he has vowed himself to an ancient power that demands his complete surrender - even if that means abandoning the woman he loves.

©2018 Sabaa Tahir (P)2018 Listening Library

Critic Reviews

“The book deftly handles serious issues like the costs of genocide and war. Both action-packed and emotionally engaging, A Reaper at the Gates is the perfect summer read.” (The Washington Post)

"Tahir has created another compelling story that defies readers to stop turning the pages." (Booklist, starred review) 

"Fans of the series will not want to miss this action-packed installment." (Bookish) 

It was okay

The performances were excellent. I enjoyed the first two books more. I was not drawn to Elias’s storyline at all. I found Laia’s and Helene’s storyline more interesting. I look forward to the final book and hope it is better.

Liked the first one.

Not enough story for 3 books so they watered this one down unapologetically. you're welcome

A bit all over the place

This was a step down from the previous two books. This book seems like a mixture of many storylines thrown together with no real order.

SSRI needed

I have loved this series until this book. It is one depressing chapter after another. I can’t even remember one happy moment. Even stunningly beautiful reading performance is muted by constant melancholy. Every reader needs some reason or hope to press on, abandon all hope when reading this book.

Worth the wait!

I've been waiting for this book so long I started it the moment my pre-order was available....but had to stop a few chapters in to go back and listen to the first two books in the series again so I could remember all the nuances and depth of character Tahir weaves into her stories.

End result, an even better experience that has me anxiously awaiting book 4!

Meh

The voice performances as always are stellar. While I am not a fan of Laia’s character (not in the slightest) Fiona Hardingham did a fantastic job as well as the other cast members. It is a rarity to find such a well acted audiobook with a full cast and this does not disappoint. I’d recommend binge listening to the series just on account of how entertaining the performances are.

Now the story on the other hand...

I feel it takes a very talented writer to make you love every character in a multiple P.O.V. story. For me I adored Helene’s chapters as I found they were the most mature and I found her journey of trying to navigate the politics and trying to protect her sister the most entertaining. I’m sorry but I just can’t get behind the insta love between Elias and Laia which lessens both their stories for me. Like Elias goes on and on about how he wants Laia and finds her so attractive and is putting everyone in jeopardy because he just lovvvvves Laia. Seriously? This man was raised to be a ruthless killer but this one girl is enough for him to (spoilers) give up his humanity? That brings me to Laia...oh boy. Her self pitying and just immaturity is just so incredibly annoying. Every time she whines about her not being strong enough or complains about her naivety I just find myself rolling my eyes. I don’t know Sabaa Tahir’s background but she puts a lot of emphasis on trying to convince you Laia is a strong compassionate woman who we should admire but it frankly fails and makes her come off as a childish Mary Sue. Now I don’t believe all women must be super strong stoic warriors to be badasses like Helene, but Helene is just so much more compelling than Laia and it honestly bugs me. However all the characters from this novel suffer from SEVERE naivety. It’s almost insufferable how the audience will know something as it’s so obvious but the characters will be oblivious to it.

That being said this book does offer an amazing final quarter battle that cemented my love for Helene. The secondary characters are also very entertaining (Musa was the only thing that saved Laia’s chapters for me). Tahir also creates a very well fleshed our world.

All in all I’d say this series has just been a disappointment for me personally as I expected so much more from it. I’ve waited two years in the hopes we’d have an epic no stop heart pounding novel and instead got two idiots pining over each other and characters and dense as a brick wall. I will still continue with the finale but only due to how stellar this cast is.

Tragic disappointment

The actors were incredible throughout and the only thing that made me move forward with the third book. I was riveted by the first two books, maybe that's where it should have stopped...It was extremely hard finishing this because Elias' chapter's were so redundant I began to hate him; the same inner conflict and the same complaints. And it took way too long for Laia to catch on to her abilities--slow child. Helene was the only one who kinda saved it as, even though she kept screwing up and lacked common sense, at least her story moved forward. I do not care about Laia's and Elias' love. Another review called it "insta-love" and rightfully so. Elias didn't even care that she'd been sexing up Keanan the whole time--he's a rare man! Honestly for the whole of book one I was trying to even grasp why people were attracted to this fumbling useless-child. Helene has always been more attractive of the two, and it would have been more satisfying to have Elia's yearn for her instead. Laia is one of the most ordinary characters in an extraordinary story.

Huge chunks were skipped, they just seem to appear here and appear there. One character took a month, while another took three days. And, as someone else pointed out the naivete of the main characters bordered on stupid. I was often ahead of their problem solving by a a good six feet, which was frustrating. Helene especially was pretty dense. I don't understand why Karis/Marcus don't care that Elias survived for this book. I also don't understand what makes Karis so invencible! And the whole history with the Night Bringer and the Mask--woof!

AND IF THEY ABORT THEIR MISSION ONE MORE TIME FOR SOME RANDOM CHILD!!UGH! Both Laia and Elias would give up EVERYTHING for one crying kid every other turn. They were so short-sighted! It happened all the time!! Anyway- I won't move on to the fourth because so much of this was deeply unsatisfying. No release for the characters or hope so why continue?

Terrible!

First, the actors were excellent... but everything else was terrible! It was nothing but horrible choices by the main characters and sad stories. Rinse and repeat! ZERO HOPE. It was a struggle to get to the end! I will wait for some reviews to roll in before I purchase the final book in this series.

Felt like one long battle sequence.

I’ve loved all of this series, but this book has been a little less loved. So much tension and battles and continuous fighting, necessary to the plot I suppose, but it became tedious after a while. Still looking forward to book four!

Too Many conveniently bad decisions

This book contained all of the disappointing attributes of book 2 without the interesting development of book 1. The main characters all make terrible decisions that don’t make sense but seem to work with the story the author wants to develop. Too much misery and sadness with no moments of joy and satisfaction that most readers need to push through. I didn’t enjoy this book at all, but finished it because I didn’t feel I could leave a review without finishing the book.

One of my favoruite series of all time

I have to say I think this is one of my favourite series of all time. It has ups and downs, political intrigue, little bits if romance that don't take away from the overall story. And the writing...ten hells, it's magnificent.

Book 3 of ?

I really liked the first 2 in this series so found this disappointing. The new narrators (maybe wait a while between 2 and 3 to not be confused) are probably better than the original set, but the plot drags. Only Helene made it worth continuing beyond the first quarter.

Story = Awesome. Narration = Awful.

Accents are inconsistent. Pronunciation is terrible - and completely different to previous Audiobooks in this series - Lay-ah has become LIE-AH, her brother’s name is no longer Da-rrin becomes DAH-RIN, Mamie Wheeler is MAY-ME or ME-ME Wheeler, Kauf is now KOFF, the Auxes are now OXES, SHE-VA is now SHAY-VA....and so on.

Keep Maxwell Caulfield as the Nightbringer, but fix his pronunciation. But PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE go back to the original narrators for any future books in this series.

Narrators for some characters are awful

My God! Why change the narrators when everything was fine. Cook sounds so groggy. Why does she sound like she has blades stuck in her throat. Enjoyable book ruined by awful performance.

A reaper at the gates

Absolutely amazing book, loved it! Just want to point out that the voice actors have changed from the last one - they're just as good but it takes a while to get used to.

Reaper at the Gates

wonderful read. the last 25 chapters were grippingly amazing and kept me on the edge of my seat until the very end !

Terrible performance, average story

STORY (3/5): 'A Reaper At The Gates' definitely ups the stakes and introduces some interesting character transformations and chemistry, but falls prey to the same issues that plagued its predecessors. The characters lack original voices, which is to say everyone sounds like everyone else. The plot is muddled and complicated beyond reason. However, it manages to pack enough tension and intrigue into its final chapters that I'm compelled to keep reading.

NARRATION (1/5): Just when I thought the previous books in the series had the worst performances, 'A Reaper at the Gates' managed to surprise me with something worse. The narrators pronounce names nothing like the ones before them, and they even pronounce them differently at different points in the book. The book already suffers from a lack of distinct character-voices, and the performers add to the confusion by sounding the same, no matter who is speaking - be it hero or villain, a man or a woman, a young person or an old one.