Meh. The rub is that some of the larger plot elements such as tribes of warriors being driven by the evil force, the rise of the new religious worship of Loki, Edward working through his father's biases, and the final sacrifice needed to make the sword powerful enough, could actually make an excellent story. The characters are also likeable and root-forable. Sadly, the plot elements are thrown together so rapidly--new religions and barbarian hordes pop up in a single day--with such little bother to explain why or how things are happening, and tremendously forced plot elements obviously designed to cause the characters to do or talk about some specific thing, that it is just a poor, boring story. The whole plot curve of Wulf made absolutely no sense to me, both that the deception wasn't obvious to them and why it was even necessary. I had to push myself to finish for the sake of finishing. There are so many better things to read...don't use your time here.
While this book was less of a slog than the first two books in this trilogy, it was still not exactly good. The prose has gotten less dry, but aside from one or two instances of striking figurative language it was completely uninspiring. Also, the truth about [spoiler character:] was obvious from the first moment he showed up. Edmund's character development felt forced. The ending was anticlimatic; the dragons should have played a larger part rather than feeling tacked on. Overall, I do not suggest this series. If you want dragon fantasy, look at Patricia C. Wrede's Enchanted Forest series. If you want medieval England, Sea of Trolls is much, much better.
