Review: The Way to Dawn: End of Days by Charles Lee

Review: The Way to Dawn: End of Days by Charles Lee 

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

When I started this series, I found myself very interested in the story and the possible direction it could go. That said, even from the beginning I saw things that weren’t working for me, but I remained invested enough that I let those feelings go a bit because what I was really interested in had potential. 

Even with this last volume, while there are things I felt underwhelmed by, I still found some things that I really enjoyed. I’ll get into those positives in a bit. 

Before I do, though, let’s look at what this volume is about!

Summary 

The story opens with Afearia and the children wandering Terra alone while Afearia tries to free the world from Derexen’s control. Meanwhile, Derexen is setting his plan to eliminate Afearia in motion. However, when she starts taking actions that actually begin liberating cities, Derexen decides it’s time to end it. With the children to look after, will Afearia be able to protect herself and topple Derexen from power?

Thoughts 

So many interesting aspects were touched upon here, and I wish that the story had gone all the way with some of them. I unfortunately have too many questions to be fully satisfied with how this turned out. Just as an example, what exactly was going on with Afearia whenever she had those adrenaline rushes? The story hints that there is more to her but never gives a clearer answer other than those hints. What is her exact connection to the past narrative, because it’s shown more than once that she is aware and somewhat invested in what happened two decades ago? 

Speaking of which, we only get a partial connection to those past events. I wish the narrative had touched more upon Greyshio’s actions alongside Demeseus’. While Greyshio had a significantly darker character arc in this series, he gets no acknowledgement in this volume, and I wish I knew why. I was hopeful after the last volume that this sequel would touch more upon the impact he had, but that never happens. And considering some of the acknowledgement the narrative gives to the past, that is disappointing. 

With that said, I think it’s time to move on to my more organized thoughts. Let’s look at the structure next!

Structure 

Now there are some things about the story’s structure that I really enjoyed. Afearia continuing to protect Adrian and Veronica allows for some really sweet moments and expands upon the implications of the story. Seeing Afearia’s diary entries (through which we get a taste of her life before her mission on Terra) gives wonderful insight into her character and the sides of herself that she rarely shows on the surface. This type of structure is also utilized when she reads important documents, allowing the reader insight into background on the story’s setting and its history, which was really fascinating! 

There is one thing I want to mention while on this topic, however. While what I just mentioned is interesting, I feel like there are other things that are started but never finished. For example, what are the further implications concerning the development with the generators? Some questions are brought up, but then they are not answered by the end. This didn’t work for me. We spend so much time following Afearia chasing after monsters without the story tying her work into the wider implications of the plot. 

Anway, now that I’ve discussed the structure, let’s look at the writing!

Writing 

I want to focus on mood and tone first. Now, in any instance with Afearia and the children following her on her journey, the mood became comforting as her relationship with them grew. I really enjoyed just how much Afearia grows to appreciate them as much as they care about her. Whenever the three of them are together, the strength of their relationship comes through because the writing shows all that they do for each other. This leads to a warm feeling to the prose, contributing to a sweet tone in the writing whenever they are together. While the pacing is still an issue because of Afearia’s journey still feeling somewhat aimless, seeing these relationships was a major highlight for me. 

While the issues with flow of dialogue and prose I mentioned in previous reviews is still present in this volume, I think I figured out why it’s a bigger issue for me this time. The word choice was sometimes awkward depending on the situation being described. This affected how the prose and dialogue worked within the story, and it was something that unfortunately broke my immersion more often and – combined with the other things I’ve discussed here – it stood out to me more.  

With that said, I think that’s everything I wanted to discuss. Let’s wrap this review up. 

Conclusion 

I was hoping to like this volume better than the last. While I do see some things about this installment that I liked, I’m still coming away with too many questions to feel completely satisfied with it. It is true that this series brought about many interesting ideas that made me want to know the rest of the overarching story, but I still feel I needed more out of this installment for it to be a completely satisfying narrative.

For that reason, I will be giving this story two stars.