About

The Silence of Unworthy Gods is the fourth book in the Arcane Ascension series written by Andrew Rowe.

The Silence of Unworthy Gods book cover

Blurb

Upon returning to Valia after his journey to Caelford and the Unclaimed Lands, Corin Cadence is confronted with a familiar foe — his own father. While his strength has vastly increased since his last encounter with Magnus Cadence, Corin knows that he’ll need every trick at his disposal — and maybe a few new ones — if he wants to survive a duel with his father intact.

While Corin struggles with his family, his friends must face a second year at Lorian Heights with new classes, familiar but new chancellor, and deadly new enemies both on and off the campus. But school itself is the least of their worries. As the year progresses, the nation of Valia faces new travails at the emergence of a mysterious faction targeting attuned commoners and foreigners. Casualties mount as Corin’s allies seek to unmask the leadership of this deadly order — and discover a threat that they cannot hope to face and emerge unscathed.

Review

As prepartion for this book, I re-read the third one. The plan was to read the third and fourth books during weekends, since I'd already consumed plenty of books in September and I had lots of work to do. As I crossed the halfway mark of the third book, I just couldn't stop reading. My work is now dented by two more days.

Overall, this book had all the things I love about this series. Corin learning and experimenting with magic (this invariably ends up energizing my own learning experience), lots of cool fights and twists. However, the ending was darker than I expected from this series and I didn't like some of the sub-plots.

Click to view spoilersThe starting chapter and the eventual duel were anti-climatic. I loved that Corin changed Magnus's attunement to Enchanter. However, after all the tension leading to these events and the book cover, I wasn't fully satisfied, especially since we didn't get any details about what happened afterwards. Corin being able to change the attunement within the time it takes for a handshake felt outlandish as well. And this being a public exhibition, what about all the risks outlined by Warren Constantine and Meltlake? If Corin can simply show off that he can alter attunements, why can't he go through with his plan of making the details of the null contract device public?

It was nice to see Wrynn finally being summoned, and her blessing playing a role in interesting ways at the end was cool. Too bad about Keras, Wrynn and Derek going off, but I hope other heavy hitters like Meltlake and Vellum will show off in the remaining books. Lute and Satsuki were interesting additions, but too many characters and plotlines meant that they didn't get enough screentime. I saw a theory that Sera now has a contract with one of the copies of Keras (from the war game), that'd be something to look forward to.

I didn't like the Sons of Valia sub-plot (which seems to be the case with other readers too). I wrongly guessed that Magnus was one of the leaders, turns out it was Saffron's game. That was fine, as it led to the gripping fight at the end, but the handling of earlier events by Meltlake and others didn't make much sense to me.

Corin fighting the Tyrant's fragment was great (reminded me of Voldemort's fragment in the diary, though I didn't fully understand how Corin beat him). Looking forward to spirit arts and other cool stuff, provided the Tyrant survived the banishment (or not! I've come across some amazing theories regarding this).

As I mentioned earlier, the ending was darker than expected. Sera managed to get into worse position than before, even if her throat is now finally healed using the Goddess Tear flower. That leads to another thing I didn't understand — wouldn't this potion be helpful to Corin and Mara as well? (For Mara, reason is explicitly mentioned in the book itself, thanks to the author for the clarification)

Looking forward to the Emerald Council. The looming war isn't great news though.

My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟☆

What others are saying

From Ryodin's review on goodreads:

So many twists and turns. Some expected, some not. This was a fantastic read and I will for sure be re-reading! The new characters are such a joy! I hope we get to see more of them!!

From Steven Bothun's review on goodreads:

This is an absolutely amazing addition to the series! Corin is starting to grow into a person that I don't think he would recognize. The rest of his team grows with him in very interesting ways as well.

Bingo

/r/Fantasy/ 2022 bingo categories:

  • A Book from r/Fantasy's Top LGBTQIA List
  • Weird Ecology (HM)
  • Cool Weapon (HM)
  • Published in 2022
  • Urban Fantasy (HM)
  • Features Mental Health (HM)
  • Self-Published OR Indie Publisher
  • Family Matters