 Hello hello hello, I'm Philip Magnus and today's review is all about The Fort in the War Eternal series by Rob Hayes. This one is called The Sins of the Mother and this review is being recorded for the second time because my equipment failed me the first, so without further ado I'm just going to jump into it. Disclaimer, I received a copy of this a little before The Sins of the Mother was released. That was a good several months ago. I didn't have the time to read it until December when I did just before the fifth and final book of the series came out. I'll be talking about that fifth book soon in this same channel, so if you'd like to keep an eye out, don't forget to share, subscribe, like this video. Now let's jump into it and what a ride Sins of the Mother has been. The first three books of Rob Hayes' War Eternal series make for some of my favorite Dark Fantasy reeds. Protagonist Esker Helsing was many things in those novels. Hungry for revenge, ambitious beyond measure furious, a world that made a monster of her, at the earliest possible age and above all of these, a sorcerer of frightening power. Taking place 20 years after the conclusion of From Cold Ash's Risen, Esker has grown old. The first chapter finds her, where I have least expected her, performing the role of Hedgewitch to some known name village in the middle of nowhere, curing wards, scaring children and scratching her arse. Going by the name of a lover dead by her own hand, Esker is living every magical retiree's dream and here I say magical because she is actually aged up because of temporal magics, which really did a number on her as long ago as the conclusion of the first book along the razor's edge. As I said, she's living the retiree's life or dream, whichever one you pick, until that is a nightmare comes a knocking very close by The local defenders of the area are looking for someone to help out with the investigation and although Esker is living under a pseudonym, she is nonetheless quickly involved in this expedition. It goes horribly wrong, needless to say. Not long after, an old friend comes knocking on the door, Emiko, whom some of you who have read the books at the very least, will be familiar with. Emiko is a master thief and charming beyond measure. Now she's bringing news which are, well, not too easy for Esker to come to grips with. Eventually what happens is that her intervention into village life forces Esker to go chasing a daughter, an errand daughter, up and down the corners of Heyser's wonderful world over various or in search for Cyrillus, the youngest of Esker's kids. All of this while Esker has to come to grips with the sins of the mother, royal credit, a big draw to this series has always been the retrospective tone of its narrative. We're told these stories from the point of view of an older Esker, one that is much more experienced yet remains as disruptive, as irreverent as her younger self. There is much this older Esker has hinted at, much he has been on the cusp of revealing, only to pull away and a lot of it has had to do with her children. This is where so many of these plot threads finally come to fruition or begin to, at the very least. Since of the matter, there's a brilliant job of bringing home so many passing references Esker made across the pages of the previous three books, Shut Up iPhone, while introducing whole new rules to the world and expanding the magic system in admirable ways, one of them by introducing a metal which slows down sorcery rejection. Sorcery rejection, for those of you unfamiliar with it, is the moment when sorcerers physically are incapable of containing even those sources that they are attuned to. In the event that rejection begins to happen, sorcerers are forced to swallow a herb in order to spit out the sorcery orbs, although it's better if they do the spitting out of these magical sources long before rejection enters into the equation. What ends up happening, if you do not do that, is, well, really really bad is what it is. And so I would sincerely suggest any of you who are finding themselves with a taste for swallowing magical sources, don't do it. Not worthy. Not worth it at all. Anyway, one of the advancements to the magic system introduced by Scissor the Mother is in the metal that slows down this process, and that is developed in a way I think pays off really well. It's a different world, and a different cast of characters to boot, heart and tamer are only mentioned in passing, in memory, in Daydream. In their place, a new cast of characters begins to form, dominated by the spawn of our very own corpse queen, a sobriquet that she earned in From Cold Ash's Risen. The greatest change is the one inside of Eska. Those 20 years have taught her wisdom, have schooled her in lessons as better as any she learned in the first three books. There is weakness also, with premature ale. What the hell? There is weakness also, with premature old age. Has come infirmity, a frailty that bellies the unquenchable willpower of this awesome protagonist. Rob Hayes brings out a facet of this character that has been tempered by age, experienced in a fresh coat of new failures, yet I can't stress this enough. Eska Helsing remains still the very end, Eska. Hayes weaves deep bonds between her and all her children. But in the characters, past and in her present, I was partial to Cyrillus, as Kaziangist, a quiet, analytical girl whose love for riddles and their answers becomes one of the driving forces behind this novel, as crew only meets her daughter later, in The Sense of the Mother. But when the meeting happens, it marks one of the most cataclysmic reunions ever, while there are then three I could have imagined. And I am by no means lacking an imagination, which you will know if you are following my fantasy help reviews over on my blog. I might have seen a Twisted Two coming along the way, where Cyrillus is concerned, but that made the execution nonetheless rewarding to follow. Cyrillus is far from the only supporting character of interest, so I do believe she would make an excellent protagonist in a follow-up series. That's neither here nor there. One supporting character from the previous books plays a central role here, Imiko, as I mentioned earlier. Imiko, who is given great depth than ever before, who, as it turns out, has more in common with Eskra than almost anyone else across the war eternal books. The same drive, what this drive is, I will not say, but, needless to mention, Rob Hayes works it in, in the most interesting ways. There's also a face that can never dissolve sheet layers on again, one that is, well, if you've paid attention, you'd know this reunion would be coming, but if you haven't, if you haven't read the series, which you should do, I couldn't possibly spoil the fun, could I? What about locations? The floating city of the godlike rend is revisited, and so are several other fantastic places. Within ovarys, cities only shown in flashbacks or mentioned in passing in previous books, are the scenes of lavish parties, or d'Arthurly betrayal. Or both. And in an oasis, in the middle of a barren desert, an eye watches on, its gaze always quick to fix on Eskra. Since the mother borrows its structure from along the razor's edge in their chapters, either open with extended soreness into the past, or are entirely dominated by them. This worked well to anchor Eska as a young girl in a brutal world before, and it works much better now, filling the gaps between Eska's last adventure and her present circumstances, much diminished as they are. I cannot press this last point enough, but the conclusion of this book is the purest, most unadulterated hit of adrenaline I have received from a Rob Hayes book yet. And that is saying something. If you've paid any attention, you should have an inkling of what to expect. And when it comes, reader, I can practically hear the endofemes rushing back into my brain, just at the thought of it. Since of the mother is a triumphant return to the world of Averiys. It serves not only as a compelling story on its own merits, but made for excellent build-up to what is one of the finest conclusions of a fantasy series I've read. That's beating hard. For my thoughts on that, tune in soon. Until then, I'm Philip Magnus. If you enjoyed this video, read... books, honestly. That's the main thing. You could like the video, you could even subscribe to my channel. And, yeah, share it. Share it with your friends, share it with your enemies. Especially the worst among them. Maybe they will get annoyed by my voice. Voice. Anyway, I'll see you next time. Bye!