About

The Last Echo of the Lord of Bells is the final book in the Mage Errant series written by John Bierce.

If you want to know what this series is about, check out Bender's review on fanfiaddict. Here's a quote:

Mage Errant series is a light and fun coming of age adventure read that’ll definitely leave you with a smile. It certainly sticks to the many of the tropes commonly found in this genre, but what sets it apart is the unique worldbuilding and over the top colorful characters.

The Last Echo of the Lord of Bells book cover

Blurb

A new kind of war has come to the continent of Ithos.

Airborne mage armies traverse enemy territory in utter secrecy. Vast city-liches conspire to influence events from afar, while city-states and archmages unleash strange new magics in a rapidly accelerating magical arms race. Nations and great powers that have remained quiescent for years have begun reaching out into the growing power vacuum. Magical superweapons and giant monsters are wielded by every side in an deadly tangle of alliances and factions, as each squabbling force spirals in towards their inevitable final conflict. At the center of that spiral lays the capital of the Havath Dominion, where a vengeful madman has proclaimed the precise date and time he will destroy the city.

The Last Echo will ring, and in its wake looms the threat of the Tongue Eater. Hugh and his friends are the only ones who can stop the ancient weapon, but the web of lies they've woven is fraying rapidly, and even their own allies have begun to question their mission. Monsters and archmages capable of leveling cities would stop at nothing to claim the Tongue Eater, leaving Hugh and the others with no one to trust.

And if they fail to stop the Tongue Eater, it could mean madness and death for the entire continent.

Review

🛈 This is a spoiler review.

Mage Errant is one of my all time favorite series. Especially loved how Hugh, Talia, Sabae and Godrick had complete trust in each other. Despite the escalating events as the series progressed, this series was a comfort read for me.

The final book was an amazing conclusion to the series. The battle build up, powerful mages and great powers battling it out, we even get a glimpse of Named powers fighting it out, and so on. Plenty of revelations and foundation laid for future series.

The book started with Alustin's plans and doubts, bickering amongst allies, news about Coven wrecking havoc on Havathi villages, Sica joining the battle, etc. Alustin's mental battle with the Tongue Eater continued and we got a hint that the Echo will be used to disable the Intertwined (liches of Havath city).

I was expecting the gang to crash land a Coven meeting in a dramatic fashion :D (like one of Talia's story sayings). Anyway, we got another example of author's worldbuilding skills as the gang moved through the Highvale kingdom to find the meeting's location. It was nice to learn more about the effects of Limnan magic, like Talia able to lift Godrick! Of course, Mackerel's antics like wanting a pet prisoner and trying to steal Ilinia's scarf was adorable. Rhodes finally made an appearance again — I totally didn't expect him to have become a vigilante!!

Valia's POV gave us glimpses into Havath's preparations as well as their own internal political issues. Frankly, Valia as a character didn't work for me throughout the series, especially her (mis)management of Sacred Swordsmen. Her complicated relation with Alustin was well written though, and she did shine briefly towards the end of the battle. I wouldn't have minded her surviving and working together with Alustin in a future series.

As expected, Kanderon indeed became a mobile lich! Talia helping Hugh use the dream-path to contact Kanderon was nice. It took me until this book to understand why Keayda's interactions felt off — lich issues (another example was Jycenna, fungus lich, possibly connected with other worlds too!). When Kanderon mentioned she needed another year or so to complete the transformation, I guessed that she was going to join the battle anyhow. But still, it was a shock that she abandoned so many powerful augments to do so! I wonder if she'll still find a way for abilities like worldhopping.

The last echo turned out to be typical Alustin — taking advantage of bureaucracy and his rare affinity combinations to wreck such a devastation. And to pile on Havath's misery, the Coven (on the back of their own ingenuity) followed up with an impressive blow in the heart of the city. Once the battle started in earnest, it was difficult to stop reading. This was the longest battle sequence I've come across since the final book of Wheel of Time and it took me multiple days to finish (since I was reading slower than usual as a beta reader).

The Hidden clan gag was hilarious and I also enjoyed the team work of Talia's parents (but I wonder if Hugh secretly felt relieved after Kanderon sent them off world :P). The gang facing off Alustin was inevitable, but still it was a painful reunion. By chance, Valia managed to save Alustin from Sabae's punch. Then they all faced off each other, mimicking the three-way main battle. And of course, Alustin easily drew conclusions about Kanderon being alive and the four way pact.

Amidst this mayhem, the Librarian Errants successfully deployed the Chitin Wand and the emergent labyrinth completed Havath city's destruction. Liar, Wanderer and Tetragnath showed up and destroyed the representatives of multiversal faction behind Havath. I wonder if the young man on the cusp of becoming a Named will show up in a future series, join Hugh's team, etc (same for the demon, Tienkis).

Given the events at the end of the fifth book, I was certainly on the edge whenever the gang members were in danger. When Mackerel was affected due to the Chitin Wand, I was really afraid we'd lose him. Thankfully it wasn't so, and we even got a glimpse of Labyrinth Builders. Talia ruminating over Alustin's comment about her weapon capability was another concern, which nearly came to pass when she was fighting Heliothrax at the end. Not sure I could've handled that.

The Sican Elder was a terrifying force, but Heliothrax's new monstrous grafting was even more so. That Ilinia and Indris (along with others who randomly came and went) could keep her busy for so long was impressive. Eudaxus was another surprise, didn't expect him to be so effective and survived even after he messed with Heliothrax's shadows. Too many great powers fought in the battle to list them all here, but the bamboo was certainly the most annoying.

I'm sure the author had a good laugh when almost every fan predicted Mackerel will eat the Tongue Eater. We should've known better by now. I didn't expect the gang to talk Alustin out of destroying the Tongue Eater, even with compelling arguments. Alustin, Valia and the gang finally got together to prevent the destruction. And Mackerel got books to eat anyway, in the form of resonators. One of my guesses was that Kanderon would use the labyrinth to reach Havath, which was dashed when they concluded the emergent labyrinth was no longer connected to other worlds. But then I wondered how Liar and others had arrived and if they had another way back (turns out, it was the pocket world library).

It was amazing to see how far the gang have come in terms of their magical powers and how far they still had to go. Sabae going past the brawl that included the Sican Elder was breathtaking, as was her punch later to break into Heliothrax's defenses. Hugh's ascent past the Eye to reach one of the resonators was another great display of his flexibility, and he even took notes! And then we got that chapter of Hugh holding. Talia was at her destructive best against Heliothrax, she has an incredible ability to cause damage. Godrick's "for Artur" ploy was fitting too, and I hope he'll further develop his decoy strategy. I was wondering if Mackerel would also cause some direct damage to Heliothrax. His team work with Alustin was cool.

Indris went down heroically. Ilinia gave her all too, the elemental release was cool but also added more chaos in an already desolate city. After last minute gambles (I particularly liked the scent marble affecting one of the grafted dragons, after Godrick had failed earlier with his attempt at scent based distraction), Mackerel gobbling up the final resonator was almost anti-climatic. And finally, finally, Kanderon showed up to put an end to the Heliothrax menance. Mind boggling that she has an infant star in her demesne to call upon starfire at command!!

After the emotional reunion and multiversal revelations, it wasn't that big of a surprise that Alustin's execution was staged. I wonder if he'll succeed someday in establishing his version of the internet for knowledge sharing. I'm also eager to see how he'll react to Kemetrias' paper mages and take his paper/ink/farseeing magic to the next level. The library in the pocket universe was another cool revelation!

I wish Kanderon had much more presence in this book, but as the guiding hand behind the gang as well as establishing a new version of Librarian Errants, she's bound to feature more in future series. The gang are on their way to become Named powers, and already started on the path by spending time on Raigon. I also wish we'd get some more novels like the sixth book in this series — visiting worlds, gaining new type of powers, some low stakes adventure and so on.

Overall, an amazing end to this epic series. One of the rare occasions where I followed it right from the first book (usually I'm late to the bandwagon).

My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

What others are saying

From Andrey Lukyanenko's review on goodreads:

This was a wonderful ending to this beautiful story. The last book was huge, and I really enjoyed it. The story came to a satisfying conclusion... and opened a lot of new opportunities. The humor, the characters, the new magics - everything was awesome.

From Thomas Todd's review on goodreads:

Absolutely fantastic ending to the series, loved it and definitely will be reading whatever John Bierce writes next, can't wait