Finally, after four long years waiting, here's the end of The Seven Kennings series.  This was an epic tale of what was, essentially, a single battle.  This world has several countries who are, for the most part, identified by their kenning; a power specifically located geographically.  We've not known, through the first two books, exactly what a kenning was or why some got it and most didn't.  Now, we finally understand; and what a grand reveal it was.

The book has a clever gimmick in the storytelling; we're listening to a bard recount events from all over the world that details the events of the Bone Giants' incursions.  He also details the developing coalition of other countries to create a united front and larger army.  In between his recitations, we're grounded in the present by a historian who is documenting all the stories and events.  I can't get over how truly epic this effort was; most accounts of this sort would focus on just a few key players - usually heroes and villains.  In this one, we do not see any viewpoint from the invaders; and most of our POVs are common people who are caught up in the violence.  But we see a lot of different POVs.

We do finally have all the story threads come together and it outlines an amazing sequence of events plus some historical perspectives that even our characters didn't know.  I'd be hard-pressed to select a favorite although I think most readers might pick Abhinava Khose, or Pen Yas ben Min. Khose became a favorite when he was granted a brand-new kenning in the previous books; the ability to communicate and control animals of all kinds.  Because his country had never before had the potential power of kenning-gifted people to protect them; a sidebar was the growing pains his society dealt with when these new Beastcallers refused to allow themselves to be controlled or dictated to by the government.  But I think my favorite did end up being Pen Yas ben Min, a greensleeve whose kenning allowed control over all plants.  In this story, Pen was given an acorn from a sacred tree and entrusted to travel the world until a suitable planting location could be found.  The fun part of this plotline was that Pen had no other instructions - just that she would know when the time came.  But what she couldn't have predicted was how much input she'd get from the acorn itself.  And one of the great reveals was just where and how the sacred tree was started and why the acorn had to travel with Pen.

Another favorite was a Hathrim, those who had control over fire in all its forms.  This Hathrim left her country because she refused to be weaponized and wanted a quiet life cooking food.  But she went with our merry band of heroes at the end to lend her destructive talents towards saving the world. 

One other significant character was a captured Bone Giant who is being used to understand his people better; although our protagonists still had difficulty in understanding just why his people decided to invade and where their hate and genocidal tendencies originated.  This was part of the great reveal.  And, yes…krakens were very significant to the story.

I keep saying "reveal" because it's a better descriptor than climax; since, while there was a concluding battle, it didn't overshadow all the other storylines as they came together at the end.  This was an incredibly satisfying story told in a unique way.  I loved the bigger worldview we enjoyed as everyone came to understand how the world got to where it was.  I'm not sure how else to describe it to entice you, my reader, to go get this trilogy!  But you really should. ~~  Catherine Book

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