Darkdawn

By: Jay Kristoff

Narrated by: Holter Graham

Length: 21 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's Summary

Discover the bloody end of Mia Corvere’s story as internationally best-selling author Jay Kristoff brings The Nevernight Chronicle to its epic conclusion.

The greatest games in Godsgrave’s history have ended with the most audacious murders in the history of the Itreyan Republic.

Mia Corvere, gladiatii, escaped slave, and infamous assassin, is on the run. Pursued by Blades of the Red Church and soldiers of the Luminatii legion, she may never escape the City of Bridges and Bones alive. Her mentor Mercurio is now in the clutches of her enemies. Her own family wishes her dead. And her nemesis, Consul Julius Scaeva, stands but a breath from total dominance over the Republic.

But beneath the city, a dark secret awaits. Together with her lover Ashlinn, brother Jonnen, and a mysterious benefactor returned from beyond the veil of death, she must undertake a perilous journey across the Republic, seeking the final answer to the riddle of her life. Truedark approaches. Night is falling on the Republic for perhaps the final time.

Can Mia survive in a world where even daylight must die?

New York Times and internationally best-selling author Jay Kristoff’s writing has been praised by critics and fans alike, and has won many awards, including four Aurealis Awards, an ABIA, and David Gemmell Morningstar and Legend awards.

©2019 Jay Kristoff (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic Reviews

"If you love Robin Hobb or George R. R. Martin, you will adore Nevernight." (Starburst)

"With a delicate balance of the ancient and the magical, this tense and brutal tale is unflinching, thrilling and satisfying." (Publishers Weekly)

"Joins lyrical high fantasy, Pratchett-like humour and unflinching descriptions of violence [...] something special." (SciFi Now)

A fantastic end to a fantastic story.

If you loved the first 2 books in the series you'll certainly love this one too, it ends bittersweet and full of hope but best of all satisfyingly.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Never flinch, never fear and never ...ever forgot!

.....This book, along with it's unforgettable predecessors, nevernight and godsgrave, have stole a piece of my soul. The strength of characters has left me in awe of Jay Kristoff's literary ability. I laughed and cried and laughed some more. In a tale you find yourself encouraging murder and deception and willing on evil acts because you feel apart of it, just as if it was your own vengeance being played out . What can I say this book becomes apart of you. And will be read time and time again.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

last farewell

I can't begin to express how amazing these books are. The characters are awesome, the story is awesome and I'm genuinely heartbroken that I've finished them.
Never flinch, Never fear and Never forget

Loved the trilogy.

Another addictive story. Thoroughly enjoyed all the books in the trilogy. The narrator was a perfect match for the story.
Will definatly re listen to these.

Great book, shame about the performance

This is the first audiobook I bought in the trilogy as I was so gripped and wanted to keep reading when I was on the go.

The book is brilliant, but I'm sorry to say that I was appalled by the narration. I really don't say this to make the narrator feel bad as it doesn't mean he's not talented reading other work. However, this novel contains a lot of female dialogue and main characters, and I was so disappointed to hear some of the most badass, fierce and brilliant characters I've ever read, reduced to gum-smacking dizzy teenage girls in this narrator's voice. I don't know why he felt the need to make them sound air-headed and whiny when they're meant to be so smart and strong.

It was so deeply disappointing and completely ruined the audio for me.

Again, if the narrator reads this, I don't want them to feel badly, but they do need to evaluate the way they approach their female voices.

Sad for it to end

Awesome story funny action pact and full of suspense really sad the dark dawn book 3 has ended bring on the next story

Mostly fantastic last book

Maintains the quality of the first books. The ending lacked some of the twists and turns of the other books.

Didn't want it to end

Darkdawn was a book that I was both ranking as my most anticipated yet, at the same time, my most dreaded. Anticipated because I loved the first two in the series more than any book I had read or listened to this year. Hell, more than any I had read or listened to in many years. And dreaded because of the exact same reason. I knew this was a complete trilogy and in this day and age where every fantasy writer feels that they have to write 10-book epic series, it’s strange to know that in three books the story will be told. The TLDR of this is that I just didn’t want it to end.

But end it did. And what an ending! It had everything from the author taking shots at himself for his own writing (from the erotica to the footnotes … I mean what kind of w***er writes a book with footnotes you ask? Good question, the author asks the very same one.) To be honest, footnotes are something I love in a book. They, if done well, can add a whole new dimension to a novel whilst giving you information about the world around the characters that you’d ordinarily have no way of having worked into a story. They are info dumps that don’t feel like info dumps. More like breaks in the narrative to enjoy a little anecdote.

But back to the ending. It was epic! Epic in ways that the two previous novels had promised they would work up to. In these promises, Jay Kristoff delivered. Now, I said that it was finished. And it is, to an extent. Mia Corvere’s tale has come to an end but there were characters left over and enough teasers dangled that new avenues could be opened to tell further tales and create a more complete world. So I’m sad that it has finished, but hopeful that there will be more in other areas/aspects of the world created.

Darkdawn did an excellent job of expanding on old characters, perhaps the more lesser-used ones in previous books, and making them feel like they had been main eventers from the start. It also did a damn fine job of introducing a couple of new characters that I’ll go on loving long after the final page was turned/minute was listened to. I expected this what with the excellent characters inserted into Godsgrave. It just felt like something Kristoff would do again and, dare I say, he has done it better.

There are several ups and downs in this rollercoaster ride of a novel. Obviously, with it being the final book in the trilogy I went into it with that ‘no character is safe. Anyone might die’ mentality. And I’m glad I did. Even with that mentality I was caught out once or twice by the cruelness of some of the characters’ fates. Well-played on that front, Mr Kristoff.

As with the previous two novels the narration was incredible. I only have one small complaint and that is that the pronunciation of the blood speaker’s name changed in this one from the previous books. Whether that’s because he simply forgot the pronunciation in the year or so since he last spoke it, or because the author had got in touch and told him he’d been saying it wrong, I will never know. It just grated on me the first few times I heard it but became smoother and easier to bare as the time wore on. Obviously, for those of you reading rather than listening, this won’t be an issue at all.

There are some incredibly clever moments in Darkdawn, the most clever of which I can’t actually say as it would be a massive spoiler (and I do my best to spoil nothing in all reviews I post). You’ll know which awesome bit of genius I mean when a certain thing happens with a certain book.

fantastic end to the nevernight series

Really enjoyed the series and the narrator really helps bring the story to life. Very gripping.

fantastic

the third book did not disappoint maybe better than the first two, and was narrated brilliantly

great end to a great trilogy

Excellent story telling, and great narration. lives up to the promise of the previous two books.