Steles of the Sky

Written by Elizabeth Bear

Narrated by Celeste Ciulla

Re Temur, legitimate heir to his grandfather's Khaganate, has finally raised his banner and declared himself at war with his usurping uncle. With his companions - the Wizard Samarkar, the Cho-tse Hrahima, and the silent monk Brother Hsiung - he must make his way to Dragon Lake to gather in his army of followers. But Temur's enemies are not idle; the leader of the Nameless Assassins, who has shattered the peace of the Steppe, has struck at Temur's uncle already. To the south, in the Rasan empire, plague rages. To the east, the great city of Asmaracanda has burned, and the Uthman Caliph is deposed. All the world seems to be on fire, and who knows if even the beloved son of the Eternal Sky can save it?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 8, 2014
• ISBN: 9781470380328

Elizabeth Bear

Elizabeth Bear was born on the same day as Frodo and Bilbo Baggins, but in a different year. She is the Hugo, Theodore Sturgeon Memorial, Locus, and Astounding Award–winning author of dozens of novels and over a hundred short stories. She has spoken on futurism at Google, MIT, DARPA’s 100 Year Starship Project, and the White House, among others. Find her at www.elizabethbear.com.  

Reviews for Steles of the Sky

[pwaites_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Steles of the Sky is the final book in the epic fantasy series the Eternal Sky, which starts with Range of Ghosts. Temur is raising his banner as Great Khan and gathering allies against the plot to raise an ancient evil.Thankfully, the synopsis for Steles of the Sky differed from the formula set out by the last two books. On the other hand, I don’t think my problems with the last book were just mid series slump. I think this entire trilogy suffers from poor plotting and pacing.While the end of the book did bring everyone together for the expected Final Battle, the beginning of the book maintained the pattern of people traveling from point A to point B that I’d complained about with the previous books. The plot feels very standard and completely unoriginal, and the only villain to be at all interesting is Saadat. There’s many elements I liked about the trilogy, but with such a weak plot line and poor pacing, it really suffered.Yet there are many elements I enjoyed. The foremost is the sheer beauty of the Eternal Skies. Bear has imbued her setting with grandeur, awe, and wonder all brought to life by her magnificent prose. I love how she takes her inspiration from Asian cultures instead of European and how the magic fits so deeply into the landscape, with the skies that change with the fate of empires.The other high point of the series is the inclusion of multiple important women, of many different sorts. I know both Hrahima, the tigeress warrior, and Samarkar, a wizard of the Citadel, will stick with me for a long time. The trilogy overall had a number of mother queens ruling as regents, and I wonder if it’s either inspired by history or has some deeper thematic meaning. I’d probably need to reread to say more on the subject, but what I noticed this first time around was interesting.I didn’t find the ending completely satisfying, as it seemed like there were a lot of unresolved plot threads (what was up with that Lady Dio subplot for instance?). I was more emotional about it than I expected, which led me to realize just how much I’d gotten attached to some of the characters.Other than its Central Asian setting, the Eternal Skies trilogy is very much a traditional, non-grimdark epic fantasy story. It’s not a trilogy I would reread or strongly recommend, but if nothing else I don’t regret reading it because of the beautiful world building and prominent female characters.Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.

[lquilter_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Review for all 3 books in the trilogy. This trilogy was wonderful. Complex characters, interesting plot, amazing world-building, smart writing, nuanced socio-political observations. There's a large set of characters, but they're introduced slowly enough, and are distinctive enough, that I had little trouble sorting them out. There were characters you could love to hate, characters you pitied, characters you reluctantly liked. The world-building had enough similarities to Earth to pique the interest, but enough differences to sustain the interest. And the plots all resolved in a way that was true to the story, even though sad in some ways. Highly recommended.