Product Description

With her murderous daughter, Medea, banished to the spirit world, Queen Thirrin's tiny kingdom of Icemark has enjoyed a time of peace.   But her consort, Oskan Witchfather, fears for their nation - and rightly so. Medea is out for revenge. Allied with the King of the Darkness and his terrifying Ice Demons, the power of evil grows stronger day by day. The dark is rising and the Icemark and its allies must stop it.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19495 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 517 pages

Customer Reviews

Amazing finale to the series!
This book carries on two years after Blade of Fire. There is a new threat from the south, and allies of Icemark must join forces with the Polypontian soldiers if there is to be any hope of victory. At the same time, Medea and Cronus are creating an army and are planning to invade the physical world.
Full of action and excitement, this book is no doubt the best of the Icemark chronicles. It even made me laught out loud at some points (especially with Cressida and Leo).
Read it!
By Nicole, aged 16.

WoW! Doesn't Stuart finish on a high!
Wow. Seriously, the complex, action-filled plot had me on the edge of my seat the whole way through. Stuart still managed to maintain the easy reading level of his books and keep the standard of writing high. I think that this is the best of his books, and if you weren't too impressed with his last one, DON'T STOP NOW! This one is a must read!

Mikaela-b

Disappointed

I must disagree with the other reviews; you can all see the good points of the book, here are the bad points.

This book is without a doubt the weakest of the trilogy. Stuart Hill does not spend enough time reacquianting us with the characters or building up tension, instead the storyline seems to lurch from cataclysmic battle to cataclysmic battle.

This time there are two enemies to face, which makes it difficult to focus on a single terrifying enemy as in the previous books. One of the foes has the aid of magic and controls a demon army. This concept is ridiculous as the commanders of said demons frequently forget they can actually control them and thus their army is often heavily battered before they can overcome their amnesia. Moreover, the commanders can do ANYTHING with no apparent effects on their strength, in contrast to Oskan who is about as much use as a chocolate teapot. The result of this imbalance means that it is hard to empathise with the Allies as you don't know what they are going to have to do. Also, the Satan figure is very stupid, for 'the most powerful adept in the darkness' and Medea is a stereotypical 2-dimensional she-villain, depsite Hill's best efforts to imbue her with emotion. There is also little sense of danger in the book. There is a heart-stopping moment near the end but never do the Allies seem to be taking the same batterings we saw them endure at the hands of the Sky Navy in the previous book.

I also thought we'd see more of the Venezzians and Hellenes, who played a part in the previous book.

Although this book is ok in its own right, I would recommend stopping at Blade of Fire, which is a more fitting conclusion for Hill's saga.

Sorry, to criticise Hill like this, I love the previous instalments, but I feel that this one isn't up to the same standard.