The invading forces have finally arrived on the shores of the kingdom of Belleger, and yet the nature of this enemy remains mostly unknown. Two books of build up leave us knowing only one thing about this army, and that is their ultimate destination: the Last Repository. The enemy plans to destroy the final storehouse of all books and knowledge and unfortunately for King Bifalt, Belleger is on the way. This means he must fight a war that shouldn't really involve him. He hates sorcery and having to expend the lives of his people to protect the sorcerers of the Repository galls him. To make matters even worse, Queen Estie has travelled to the Repository in order to unlock her own gift for sorcery, which means that she too is lost to him. At least now that the invaders are here, Bifalt will finally be able to see who they are, and what he is up against. To his surprise, what he learns is that the enemy is not who he thought it would be, and many of them have actually been embedded in Belleger all along...
The priests who have been spreading throughout the kingdom of Belleger preaching peace in the name of the Great God Rile are not what they appear to be. It turns out that Rile is not just a mythical god, but actually at the head of the invading army. Now that the invasion is well under way, those priests show their true colors and treachery abounds. The priests are able to use their unique brand of sorcery to control others, thus ensuring that key leaders within Bellger will fail in their defensive responsibility. Both Bifalt and Estie must deal with the impact of such treachery and rally what resistance they can. It all leads up to a final confrontation where everything, and everyone, is at stake.
In standard Donaldson fashion, he does an excellent job describing the battles and building tension until the final battle is resolved and I must say that I enjoyed this book the most of the three. This series has everything you would want in it from a formulaic story telling perspective except for one thing: characters worth caring about. Ultimately, that made the story feel a bit hollow and I did not enjoy it as much as Donaldson's other works. It isn't a bad series, but it didn't grab me like The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever or the Gap Cycle.
Scott Brick narrates the audiobook version and delivers a typical performance for him. Like him or hate him, you know what to expect as he reads all of Donaldson's books. I don't personally mind his narrations but he also doesn't add enough to elevate this series to greatness.