The Shattered Crown

Books of Caledan, Book 3

By: Meg Cowley

Narrated by: Jack Voraces

Is a foe ever truly unbeatable?

Caledan is caught in the middle of a warring dragon clan, and Soren is powerless to save his people or stop the attacks, but worse is coming. The Elementals are rising. If Caledan is not destroyed by dragon fire, it will be obliterated by the Elementals’ ancient magic.

Soren despairs as the alliance between men, Eldarkind, and dragons falls apart. Strife and fear are rampant, and his inability to stop the rebel dragon attacks undermines the peace he has worked so hard to secure.

As the rifts between the three races grow, Soren, the Eldarkind, and the dragons must defeat the rebel dragons and rebuild their pact in order to have any chance of facing the greater threat of the Elementals. For, once they rise, it will be too late.

Soren faces the greatest tests of his rule so far, and it may cost everything he has: his home, his rule, and his life.

Can the alliance be rebuilt, and the Elementals vanquished forever?

Buy The Shattered Crown today and discover how the epic saga ends.

©2017 Megan Cowley (P)2020 Megan Cowley

A solid final

Perhaps I am a bit spoiled by Chronicles of Pelenor books, but I felt like this book was slightly weaker compared to its counterpart or to previous entry of the series. Overall the experience is rewarding and the story is interesting. My main gripe with the book is that it's too predictable and too black and white.

In terms of narration though, Jack is probably my favourite narrator so I only have good things to say here: as always it's high quality and very pleasant to listen.

Enjoyable Finale

I received a free review copy.

I enjoyed this finale. I thought the conclusion was satisfying. If you liked the prior books in the series, I recommend completing it. We learn whether Soren or Jackie win, how the relationship of Eve and Luke turns out, what happens with the dragon conflict, whether the elementals destroy the world, and whether the various races can set aside their differences and work together.

A satisfying conclusion to a great trilogy

Following after the first two books, this one makes a solid conclusion to the series. It neatly wraps up several storylines that have been building from the start and presents some interesting developments of its own.

As I've come to expect, Jack Voraces gives a fantastic performance with a brilliantly voiced cast, almost always spot on vocal inflections, and near perfect tempo adjustments. Similarly, though it took a bit of getting used to the first time, I absolutely love the echo effect he uses for internal monologue. Makes it super easy to differentiate between what's being said and what is private thoughts.

Now, following after the character-driven piece that is The Brooding Crown, this one goes back to the rapidly paced, plot-driven structure we saw in The Tainted Crown.

That is not to say we don't dive deep into new characters, however.

There are several new characters, not least of all being the new ruler of the Eldarkind. Although I can't profess to like him very much, he's a well-developed character who is largely just trying to do right by his people.

In this one we once again see major developments in Eve's character and I was most pleased with who she finally becomes in the end.

Of all the characters in the series, I feel like it's Eve who has the greatest, most satisfying character arc and it was so much fun seeing her transformation.

Now, before I go any further I have a couple of things that bear mentioning.

This is mentioned almost at the very beginning so I don't feel it's a true spoiler. But if you'd rather avoid anything of the sort, best to skip the next 2 paragraphs.

Apparently somewhere in the interim between book 2 and this one there is a major battle between the dragons and Bahr, and the elemental is finally (somehow?) killed.

I honestly felt like I missed a book. It's a pretty major event and I have to admit to being rather disappointed that it was not detailed herein. There's a lot that's connected to it, not least being just how they managed it, as the inability to kill the elementals was the whole reason for The Pact in The First Crown. But there are a lot of other details that could have used unpacking, which has left me a little bit frustrated.

Which brings me to my biggest complaint about the book as a whole. There is a LOT of summarizing and skipping over things.

Now, in general I'm not opposed to some summary to keep things moving or to skip over unimportant or uninteresting details. But here there are a number of scenes in which I would have really enjoyed a lot more detail and depth. There are things we hear about only second hand that really could have enhanced the power of the story and the depth of the characters if they had been explored more fully. More intimately.

Continuing the trend that began in the second book, I found myself drifting even further from my connection with Soren in this one. He's still an interesting character and I do like the growth he experiences in this book, I just find myself unable to really identify with him anymore.

All that said though, that's a lot going on in this book that ranges between fascinating, thrilling, and emotional. There's a wide range of happenings across numerous characters and locations and it really brings a lot of things full circle by the time we reach the final conclusion.

Now, for the ending proper.

There are several climaxes as we build our way to the very end. Between the Dragon Civil War, the unrest in Caledan, the Elementals, and the struggles of the Eldarkind, there's plenty to keep things interesting. The conclusions are all complete and satisfying, neatly tying off the various plot threads in several epic showdowns.

Great final book!

Don’t stop now, this last book is worth it! I was on a bit of a marathon with this series and listened to this twice. The first time I was so excited to find out how it ends and the second time I caught some details I missed. Satisfying conclusion- ties up all the loose ends and has some epic moments. Soren was my favorite character, but honestly enjoyed the maturing of Soren and Eve both.

Remarkable Ending.

This is the third and final installment to the series by Meg Cowley. The story had me twisting and turning at night. I could not stop listening. Great story.

Jack Voraces has done it again. His ability to change his voice per character as well as voice all the emotions going on has me coming back for more each time. His acting out of sighing or depiction of rambling brings life to the story and really connects me more to the characters.

Well done.

A solid conclusion to a great series

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Overall, a solid series but Meg Cowley's writing isn't going to be my favorite. The series is great, with a large world interesting characters, interwoven stores, and a good size cast (not too big, and not too small), but in the end, there's something that just didn't click for me. I think the problem comes down to the wrong audience, my thinking throughout the series was that if I was a young teen this would have been great. My recommendation for these is that if you like YA/teen fantasy or have a teen in the house these might make a great gift.

As for Narration, I have yet to hear a bad narration from Jack Voraces, he, as he always seems to do, put on a solid performance, and was my favorite part of the audiobook.

An absolute must read trilogy

The whole Adventure is fantastic it's simply just amazingly well-written trilogy. The book does a good job with a full wrap up no unanswered questions which I was pleased with and the ending was simple but good. Overall if you have read the first two this is a must-read for you. Jack Voraces once again has done and amazing job especially with the pronunciation of the Elder kine language which seemed to be more prevalent and this book make it feel and sound like an actual language simply amazing job!