The Chronicles of the Black Gate has become one of my all-time favorite series to date. Phil Tucker writes a hell of a whalloping good story. I'm just hoping that it doesn't take Phil Tucker forever to release the next book. George R.R. Martin and Patrick Rothfuss have driven me beyond frustrated by keeping us waiting so long for the next books in their series. If Mr. Tucker can keep up the pace, he has earned himself a loyal reader in me.



I thoroughly devoured The Siege of Abythos, which is the third book in The Chronicles of the Black Gate series, because I enjoyed it immensely. However, I gave it only 4 stars because it had two issues.



First, the editing was troublesome. There were quite a few missing words and mixed up sentences. Regrettably, the previous book in the series, The Black Shriving, had even worse editing problems, so I give props for the improvement in this book. The first book in the series, The Path of Flames, was actually the best edited/proofed of the three. By the way, I would love the opportunity to proof Mr. Tucker's manuscripts before they are released. His phenomenal writing deserves much better editing than he's getting.



The second issue I had was Mr.Tucker's numerous overlong descriptive passages. I don't mind a few, but these types of passages occurred so frequently that it slowed down the flow of the story. I'm sure there are many individuals that love this kind of descriptiveness, but, unfortunately, I'm not one of them.Please don't misunderstand me. As a whole, I truly enjoyed Mr. Tucker's writing, but I found myself skimming over some of the descriptions because they were distracting me from the parts that I really loved, and they weren't adding anything significant to the story.



In all three books, the action was creative, and the overall stories were quite exciting and inventive. The characters were well developed, and I've come to love many of them

as if they were personal friends of mine. Each chapter is told from a character's perspective, and I have come to look forward to reading the chapters from Audsley's, Kethe's, Tiron's, and Iskra's point of views. Quite a few of the supporting characters have stolen my heart, as well. It's difficult to determine whether someone should be considered a villain or a hero. Each character has their own unique vision and turmoil, so I can't pigeonhole many of them as good or bad. Many of them go through changes that affect their personas. Some of their stories are absolutely heartwrenching, and Phil Tucker does an exquisite job of getting you to care about them. The characterization and the plot twists are astounding. With each book, the story gets more impossible to put down.



Many other reviewers have described the story, so I feel that it's unnecessary for me to do it again. However, I do feel it's necessary for me to recommend this series very highly. I'm savoring it much more than I ever thought I would, and I didn't want any of the books to end. The next volume cannot come out soon enough. The longer it is, the better. Please don't keep me waiting, Mr. Tucker. Thank you for the amazing time I've spent enjoying your books.