CITY OF BLOOD AND FIRE

The concluding installment of Harkness’ YA fantasy series pits young soldiers against a new kind of enemy.

The fifth and final book in the A War of Banes and Demons series finds demon slayers Garet and Salick back in the city of Shirath after their dangerous trip to the Far North, where they discovered that the demons they’d been fighting were being created by a powerful enemy. What they find on their return shocks them both: Already weakened by continuous demon attacks, the city will face a final onslaught on the spring equinox, which is worryingly close. Trax, king of Shirath, is also showing signs of losing his grip on his people and his sanity. Soldiers, for example, refuse to perform unlawful executions on his orders, exacerbating the sense of fracture within the city walls. Soon, the Fifth Ward’s Maze, where “the dregs of the city” reside, finds itself under attack by the arrival of a new type of demon—one created using humans: “As expected, since the demon had spread no fear as it approached, he found silkstone plates fixed to its skull with small iron nails….Its face was no longer even vaguely human, but bore a fully toothed beak, eyes as black as a starless night, and a helmet-like crest that stretched from just above the stone plates to the back of its head.” Alongside the rich descriptions and brisk action are explorations of larger themes: good versus evil, the weight of power, and what it means to be human. A bittersweet ending—complete with a shocking banishment and slightly less shocking wedding—provides a fitting conclusion to a saga that still contains the potential for many more adventures.

A smart, fast-paced series finale that ties up loose ends while providing all the action readers have come to expect.