Life, Tavi reflected, seldom makes a gift of what one expects or plans for.

It’s darkest before the dawn.

Things have been going badly for the Alerans for a while now. The Vord are here and they’re winning, driving the Alerans back time and time again. If only there were a brilliant leader with a known tendency to come up with sideways solutions to impossible problems… Unfortunately, Tavi is stuck on the other end of the world. So what’s next.

Structurally, First Lord's Fury really feels more like the second half of Princeps' Fury. If not for the sheer size such a book would have been, I wouldn’t have been surprised had they been a single book originally.

At this point, if you’ve made it this far, you’re going to read this book. And you know they’re going to win. But in this case, take the journey before destination¹ and see how things get there. There’s crazy action, mad plans, traitors and battles galore. It’s a solid conclusion to a wonderful series. Well worth reading.

Oh, and my comment about Fidelias? It works. I still don’t like him and wouldn’t have been terribly sad had he not survived this long. But there’s something to be said for redemption…

There are some people who will never understand what loyalty means. They could tell you what it was, of course, but they will never know.They will never see it from the inside. They couldn’t imagine a world where something like that was real.