The Fate of the Tearling

The Queen of the Tearling, Book 3

By: Erika Johansen

Narrated by: Polly Lee

Length: 19 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's Summary

The thrilling conclusion to the New York Times best-selling Tearling trilogy.

In less than a year, Kelsea Glynn has transformed from a gawky teenager into a powerful monarch. As she has come into her own as the Queen of the Tearling, the headstrong, visionary leader has also transformed her realm. In her quest to end corruption and restore justice, she has made many enemies - including the evil Red Queen, her fiercest rival, who has set her armies against the Tear.

To protect her people from a devastating invasion, Kelsea did the unthinkable: She gave herself and her magical sapphires to her enemy and named the Mace, the trusted head of her personal guards, regent in her place. But the Mace will not rest until he and his men rescue their sovereign, imprisoned in Mortmesne.

Now, as the suspenseful endgame begins, the fate of Queen Kelsea - and the Tearling itself - will finally be revealed.

©2016 Erika Johnasen (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers

what a let down!

I was so excited for this final book, only to be totally let down. I often wondered where the story was going only for it to end in the most anti climactic way possible. I literally went back and listed to the last 20 minutes sure that I had missed something, but nope. Sad!

Why change narrators???????

The first book, narrated by Katherine Kellgren was SO well done! I hate that they changed the narrator for each book. Kellgren was integral in creating the world that made me want to continue listening to this series on Audible as opposed to buying the books and reading them myself. In fact, I did buy the second instalment to read it myself because I didn't want to wreck the picture that she created with the voices she used and the way she read it. I only bought this one on audible because of lack of time to sit down and read. Really really unfortunate that they had to go and do that. That's not to say that it's performance is bad. It's just really annoying that it changed with every book when the first was so so amazing.

How could you?

I just.. why? Book 1 was awesome... book 2 took a turn and was totally different than the first but still really good... now book 3 got flip-turned upside down. Now, I just need to go lie down and process my feelings.

Disappointed with the ending

I feel mislead by the excerpts that have been in all the books referencing certain things that never happen. I understand the plot device that ended the book but it feels cheap and like the author wrote herself into a corner and used this to get out. it works to end the story but destroys all character development except for the main character's. You also are left with no closure for anybody but Kelsey. All in all, a disappointing conclusion to what was a good series.

Thrilling!!

This final chapter in the Tearling saga was well worth the wait and lost of sleep. At times I found my heart racing from fright and then being startled into laughter, so I would say the narrator did a great job taking me out of my own room and into The Tear. This story has been long and involved and at times I felt like the heroine might well have been the villian (kind of liked those scenes) but after reading this book I can't help but agree that Queen Kelsea is the one true Tear Queen.

waste of time

I started the first book and it was wonderful! I was hooked and I could wait to find out how Kel's journey unfolded. Then I got to the second book and toughed it out, but even then I was disappointed with the direction of the story. The author built up all these points in the first book and in the second diluted most of the story with the Lily perspective on top of adding powers that Kel didn't even touch on again in the third book! In this book I had been excited to start it be aide the Lily narrative was finished and then nope! Katie pops out of nowhere and that takes up a good chunk of this book.

The narrator for this one wasn't super great, her voices sometimes were inconsistent.

Overall, the whole thing was incredibly anti-climatic and it felt like the author was finished with the story and just gave up. I want my credits back :/

Ending Made the Series a Waste of time

What disappointed you about The Fate of the Tearling?

The ending of this book amounts to author saying, "Then she woke up and it was all a dream" The characters stop being the characters, the events un-happens The author spends quite a bit of time developing an altruistic socialistic philosophy, but doesn't seem to grasp how the hero of the story negates all this by having it all stand on her shoulders. In the end we don't see how her Utopia happens, we see only how it became another distopia.

Would you ever listen to anything by Erika Johansen again?

Can't, I listened to all three books, and felt the ending of the book to be cheap and insulting.

What does Polly Lee bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The multiple narrators of the series took some minor getting used to. But all did well.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

To be clear I enjoyed this book all the way up until the last couple chapters.

The End

I understand the end, but I wasn't crazy about it. I'm not really sure you are supposed to be though.

This book needs more than one narrator

I read the first two books in this series, and listened to the third. I love the books and like the narrator for female roles. However, the female voice in general simply lacks the range needed for the variety of male characters in this book. Most of the men sounded either like small children or brain damaged, becoming an annoyance or, at times, unintended comic relief. This detracted somewhat from an otherwise thoroughly enjoyable listening experience.

Final Novel pales in comparison

It's great to see what happens to characters that were so richly crafted but the novel itself is not as well written as the first two. There are some sections of the book where the character's reflection on things goes on far too long. I expected more from the ending but overall Johansen is still an awesome author.