So yes, finally finished and what a tale! Along with Cry of the Newborn, the two Ascendants of Estorea novels tell an absolutely perfect story. Shout for the Dead is definitely more pacey than Cry... with less of the world building and intrigue of that first novel (although the complex themes of acceptance, religion, power and idealism are all still present) but from the outset it was just so enjoyable to be back in Estorea with characters I'd grown to love over the preceeding book's eight hundred or so pages. Although the epic battle scenes are again present the tempo and nature of them is changed from Cry... so that the fight for the Conquord is more of a desperate slog than last time and I was glad to feel that I wasn't just reading "more of the same." The scenes at sea with the Ocetanas, Illiev and Squad Seven alone were worth the price of admission. As things drew to a close and the remaining pages grew fewer, I began to feel that perhaps the ending would leave me unsatisfied but I can gladly say that Barclay finished things off nicely. After almost 1500 pages of such a living, breathing world it would have been nigh impossible to bring down the curtain leaving everything neatly in place but what we got was a satisfying closure on this chapter of Estorea's history. There wasn't a finality to the ending and it cheers me to think of these characters living on; creating new begninnings and forging new lives for themselves. Whether or not James Barclay decides to revisit Estorea and the Ascendants again is something only he will know but regardless, the futures of the Conquord, Sirraine and Tsard will be very interesting indeed.
