THE IMMORTAL HEIGHTS

Thomas wraps up her trilogy with a grandiose finale, plus a hearts-and-flowers denouement.

Elemental mage Iolanthe Seabourne and her beloved, Prince Titus, have survived the attack on the rebel base in the Sahara; now they’ll take the fight directly to the tyrannical Bane in his impregnable fortress deep in the heart of Atlantis itself. But even when joined by allies old and new, some expected and some surprising, all their courage, ingenuity, conviction, and sacrifice cannot circumvent the explicit prophecies that both will die in the attempt. While Iolanthe remains a ridiculously overpowered superspecial "chosen one," her stubborn, no-holds-barred personality holds a prickly charm. Titus is still deliciously anguished and adoring, shouldering every responsibility and protective to a fault. Even if the remaining characters function mainly to admire and support these two protagonists, each is also given a moment to shine. The plot surges forward relentlessly through its tumultuous course, navigating the occasional revelatory twists and tender, impassioned eddies, until it finally crests in a confrontation that manages to be simultaneously gloriously over-the-top and oddly mundane—an assessment that might be applied to the trilogy as a whole.

Delivers on all the grand epic sweep, lush prose, and overwrought emotion promised by the first two volumes; if that’s the sort of thing you like, this is the sort of book you’ll love.