The Wide World’s End

The Graith of Guardians is in peril. Unknowable creatures are devouring the Sun and threatening all life, while a murderer stalks those anointed to protect the people. As craftsman and warrior Morlock treks across the world to stop the Sunkillers, his beloved wife Aloe confronts her fellow Guardians, hoping to avenge a good man’s death and give Morlock the time he needs to save the world. But, their missions send them farther and farther apart, and even if they succeed, the consequences of their actions may separate them forever.

The Wide World’s End is the conclusion of the A Tournament of Shadows series, and it is an epic in true Tolkien fashion, as adventure and journey co-mingle in a world slowly unraveling. Big plotlines converge and earlier actions return to haunt our beleaguered heroes.

If this is your first encounter with Enge’s magic-infused medieval world, some references to earlier events will elude you, but you’ll be able to parse most of the important ones, and thankfully, those flashbacks rarely hinder the narrative.

The inevitability of certain plot points, however, makes this a somewhat unsatisfying read, even as the fate of the world hangs in the balance.