The Slain Divine

• Author: David Dalglish
• Genre: Fantasy
• Publication Date: January 9, 2024
• Publisher: Orbit
• Series: The Vagrant Gods #3

Thank you to Orbit and Angela Man for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Everlorn Empire’s grip on Thanet is tighter than ever. The God-Incarnate himself has arrived on its shores to crush the uprising and carry out his final, sinister plan.

The rebellion is struggling to separate allies from enemies and to find a way to stop the slow destruction of everything and everyone they care for. Meanwhile, Cyrus is disappearing deeper beneath the vicious mask of the “Vagrant.” Under the mantle of the legendary assassin, he may be strong enough to take down the empire, but at what cost?

In the thrilling conclusion to USA Today bestselling author David Dalglish’s epic fantasy trilogy, a usurped prince must master the magic of shadows in order to reclaim his kingdom and his people.

I always struggle so much with books and series that I love. Reading the last book in a trilogy usually gets procrastinated, because I never want to say goodbye to the characters, but then I get too curious and have to find out what happens in the story. That’s what happened here—I was dying of curiosity as to what was going to occur next, but couldn’t bear the thought of losing any of the characters I loved so much. Hence, a review in June for a book that was published in January. Sorry.

This one starts off with a much needed synopsis of what happened in the two previous books. I love when an author does this, and don’t know why every author of a series doesn’t do this—it’s really helpful in recalling important parts that I might not remember, or might have overlooked in rereads.

After this, Dalglish offers us a peek into Dagon’s past, giving us some of his experience and motivation, allowing readers to gain insight into why Dagon is the way he is in the present day. We also get a lot of POV characters in this story, and while it could be overwhelming, Dalglish has worked his way up to this number by adding in more characters in each book, adding in a few more in this story. In this way, readers also understand what is happening in various factions who are fighting for control of Thanet. While I have my favorite characters (Mari, clearly) and those that I really enjoy reading chapters through their eyes, there are others who became more morally gray and started to grow on me, and then there is at least one who I despised (Lucavi, duh). 

There was so much incredible character growth in this story, for so many of the characters. I loved seeing them really adapt to their changing circumstances, and grow as a result of this. And while all this is occurring, there is so, so much action. Thanet is the staging ground for a massive showdown—the God-Incarnate has arrived and is determined to put down the rebellion so he can implement his evil plan, Sinshei is expecting to be made the Heir-Incarnate, our rebellion crew is fighting to take the island back and restore control to the rightful ruler, and Soma wants to be free and be worshiped as the rightful god of the island. There are cracks in all of the foundations that have been starting to show, and it’s never more obvious than in this book. 

Obviously, the actions scenes were outstanding. Dalglish can write a fight scene wonderfully, as he demonstrated in the previous two books, so I wasn’t worried about that, but he really displayed that even more in this book. There’s scheming and machinations going on behind the scenes left and right, and it felt like so many characters were ready to stab another in the back, making unlikely allies in order to achieve their goals. But of course, nothing works out as planned in this world.

Overall, this was a thrilling and satisfying conclusion to the series. I was heartbroken and fulfilled, cried happy tears and sad, celebrated and mourned with the characters I have come to know like old friends, and had periods where I wanted to throw the book at the wall (but refrained because it’s a pretty heavy book). Ultimately, my trust in the author wasn’t misplaced, and he concluded this trilogy perfectly—the pace, the plot, and the character development all wrapped up in a way that wasn’t necessarily perfect, but felt just right. Dalglish is a skilled author, and this is one of my favorite series that I’ve read recently. Don’t hesitate to grab this if you enjoy underdog stories, rebellious fantasies, and strong, female-led casts of characters with lots of action and cool but unique magic systems.

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