Review: The Burning God

The Burning God by R.F. Kuang
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Burning God is a perfectly serviceable ending to a trilogy I enjoyed overall. I'll outline my issues with it, but I still say this is a book series most need to read. While nothing eclipses the first book in terms of quality, this is not a typical book series that drops the ball after the first volume. If you've already read the first two books, you should at least be somewhat happy with the last edition.

Things like pacing, prose, and characters are still top-tier here. Flaws aside, TBG can at least maintain your attention. Not perfect, but also never boring. Being more of the same is both a blessing and a curse as what the same is also pretty good while not being surprising either.

I would say it has two big problems. First, it doesn't add anything new in terms of characterization or plot. It's roughly just a continuation of the previous book without many steps taken to outline a grander story. Two, the author more or less writes herself into a corner where the mangled bittersweet reminding-me-of-Game-of-Thrones-though-not-quite-as-bad is the only option left available. I know what the author is trying to say because she literally spells it out to the reader, but I felt there should have been a few more drafts on the table. At least she didn't go for a redemption arc. That would have been even worse.

Pet peeve: The epilogue isn't an epilogue, it's a conclusion to the unnecessarily abrupt ending of the last chapter. That's not what epilogues are for. Not being used properly is a big reason why I generally dislike prologues and epilogues.

I, admittedly, had this final volume on my 'To Read' list for a couple of years in between reading the second book. I can't help but think if I had read this closer to the last book I might have had a better opinion of it. But books, if nothing else, should last the test of time. I should put at least some onus on my memory, but it also shouldn't be completely to blame. I still liked it, just not as much as the first two.

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