Official Book Review: Echoes of Ghostwood, Book Four of J.V. Hilliard's Warminster Series

“Crimson flags borne on horses of white, see them ride, ye children of light." – The Ballad of Eldwal

In my vast reading of Fantasy the climax of a book is always ones of the ways I measure the book itself, the series it is part of, and the author. My rule being that longer and more heart-stoppingly intense it is the better, and I always expect double from the final book in a series since it is when all must come to an end. But occasionally, very occasionally, I read final volumes that do not have a one because they are themselves from page one a heart-stopping climax. A Memory of Light, the 14th and finale of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time was one such book and, while I do not pretend to compare J.V. Hilliard with Robert Jordan, his mastery of book-length multi-pronged epic and highly detailed battle on a global scale is approximate.

“Victory, in spite of all terror, is the reward for the valorous." – King Godwin Thorhauer

Thus have I finished Echoes of Ghostwood, the fourth and final book of J.V. Hilliard's Warminster Series. Thus did fell alliance from the Dragon’s Breath Mountains fall in the second Battle of the Bridge, the breaking of the siege of Thronehelm, the restoration of the Cathedral of the Watchful Eye, and Foghaven Vale. The curse of Graytorris the Mad ending, his crazed laughter silenced, in a very poetic way, though at terrible cost. I said in my first Official Book Review that J.V. Hilliard's mastery of Fantasy lies in taking known if rarely used elements of the genre and merging them into a by extension brilliantly unique tale. From blind seers and Elven Princesses to cryptids and cryptid-worshiping cults not unlike those of Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, to necromancy seldom seem beyond Dungeons & Dragons to honorable, blunt, and warlike Norsemen.

Blending the high morals, epic magics, vistas, and battles (including the finest naval battles I have ever read), Hilliard invoke the sense of mystery and stakes of J.R.R. Tolkien couple with the treasonous and devious Court Intrigue popularized by GRRM. Making Warminster a realm where dark and seemingly separate plots – both political and arcane – are in fact linked even as heroes from across a realm of many distinct cultures and races, religious sects and cities, rise to face it. I do not pretend to compare Hilliard's skill with the above titans, yet never had I ever read such a seamless, unique, and skillful merging of each coupled with Jordan's  knack for long and epic battles.

And yet... somehow I feel that we have not seen the last of the realm of Warminster. Erudian Sight gave two options for a cursed Ancient, yet a third occurred; black roses were places where none should be and it occurs to me that the Shadow Elves were never dealt with. To say nothing of the Wanderer's words to Faux regarding a miscarriage of justice.

If and until then, farewell and may Erud's light guide you Keeper Daemus Alaric, Princess Addilyn Elspeth, Montgomery Thorhauer, Joferian Maeglen, Faux Dauldon, Arjun, Ember, Jins, and finally Sir Ritter and all those of Castle Valkeneer. May your arrows fly true.

"The face of despair appears invincible, but in time, it always fades." – Warminster the Mage