The Harbors of the Sun: Books of the Raksura Series, Book 5

I loved this series- I want more!! 7 books are simply NOT ENOUGH! Probably one of the best Sci-fi fantasy series around- how did I not grab this one sooner?! The Raksura are just utterly lovable and every groundling race is fleshed out, unique and just fascinating. I also loved that we learned a lot more about the Fell at the end of the series and were left with so much hope and possibility. I'll be rereading immediately- it was THAT GOOD.

Good book, Amazon is weird in that I can't just give it 5 stars and be done with it. Pickles.

For fans of Martha Wells’ Books of the Raksura series, The Harbors of the Sun is another enjoyable adventure into the strange realm of the Three Worlds. Filled with odd creatures and species, bizarre places, technologies and magic, it’s always a place of wonder and imagination. But no story is complete without an engagement of emotion, and this one tugs at both the good and bad. There’s humor, despair, suspense, romance, devotion, curiosity and anticipation. It covers a lot of ground. From beginning to end, it’s a fun ride.As the last book in the series, this certainly isn’t a story for new readers to jump into. However, if you do want to invest the time, you can at least know it ends on a good note. For the rest of us, this journey marks an end that isn’t definitive, but is a pleasant place to stop. One last epic adventure with Raksura, Fell, groundlings and sealings with the fate of the Reaches held in the balance. The stakes are high and the main characters at the center as war threatens on two fronts.As much as the high stakes adventure drives the story, it’s funny how the little things are the parts that can captivate the most. For instance, I really enjoyed the Half-Fell queen and her Fell flight. It was refreshing to see Fell who weren’t villains. As much as I wanted to see the Raksura succeed, I also wanted the Half-Fell to find a future for themselves. I loved seeing some of the members fleshed out as characters. Aside from the queen, there is Kethel who has some fun moments with Stone and Moon. There is also the Dakti called First who stands by the queen’s side, saying more with his gestures than with dialog. The quirkiness of the Fell adds a lot variety to the story, balancing with the Raksura and the odd groundling races.At 403 pages, The Harbors of the Sun can feel a bit like a tome on par with a hefty Stephen King novel. However, unlike King, Martha Wells spins a much more enjoyable place to relax in as far as escapist fiction goes. It’s nice to read a book that’s not overly violent, predictable, or bleak. Sometimes you just need a story you can get lost in but leaves you in a good mood. This book starts with the characters split up in various places. Two groups are tracking down a rogue group of Hian archaeologists bent on unleashing an ancient super weapon of mass destruction, while a third group prepares to guard the Reaches from a Fell invasion. The plot slowly moves forward as the Raksura zero in on the Hians, but the chase leads to several stops as they pick up clues along the way. They visit strange places and towns as they hunt down the Hians. Meanwhile the Raksura in the Reaches make preparations for the impending Fell attack. Each storyline moves at a different pace, providing ups and downs in the tension as each one plays out. There comes a point when the two culminate, yet the story doesn’t end there. It continues, providing more action, more adventure, and more of the main characters. The sprawling journey takes readers on a long trip providing them with plenty to enjoy.For providing hours of entertainment, page turning suspense, and genuine laugh out loud moments that left me closing the book with a smile on my face, I give The Harbors of the Sun a five out of five. Whether you want to read just the first book or the entire saga, this is a great series to check out.

I intended to do one quick fantasy read, what I call mind candy, in interlude between my book club reading. Unfortunately, I couldn’t stop reading this series and just finished the fifth book. A fascinating world, lots of action and interesting characters, I just kept reading till I was done with the fifth book.

After reading the first four books in the Raksura series in only four weeks, and being impressed with Wells' skill at telling a story and making alien characters believable, I found The Harbors of the Sun immensely disappointing.First, there are two many characters (over 75!), only a dozen developed with recognizable personalities (Moon, Bramble, Stone, Chime, Pearl, Jade, Malachite, Shade, Rorra, Kalam, The Raksura Queen, Kethel). And due to the plot of the book, they end up in about five or six different groups (Raksura at Indigo Cloud, several traveling Raksura groups which split up, Golden Isles people, the Jandera, two different Kish people, the Hians, the half Fell, the Fell), with half a dozen Raksura and friends in each location, and the chapters skipping from group to group and place to place.As a result, I spent far too long making lists of the 75+ characters and their groups which also kept shifting.My other criticism is that there was too much unexpected, unexplained magic, which didn't clearly derive from the setup of the book, and was kind of a reverse deus ex machina -- rather than some outside force saving the characters there were unexpected magical disasters happening to create more obstacles for them. I was never quite clear about exactly what the weapon was, how it worked or how it was used. So much seemed arbitrary.Martha Wells is normally a superb writer. But in this book, the last of her Raksura series. I had the impression that she was tired of this series and felt compelled to write it - but without the inspiration and craft she usually has. As a result, the novel was unnecessarily complicated, convoluted, overloaded, and at times incoherent and unclear.On the plus side though, Moon is Moon and Stone is Stone, and Bramble and Chime true to character. And Wells did a great job of creating the characters of the half-Fell Queen and her devoted Kethel - they were quite a brilliant addition to the Raksura's storyline.I still have one more of her Raksura stories collections to read (I loved the first) , and some of her other novels as well, since she is usually one of the best fantasy writers. So I will forgive her for this one........while encouraging readers to make lists of the groups of characters in order to keep them straight, since this is one of her only Raksura books that doesn't have several pages identifying all the characters at the end. And this is the book that needs it most of all!

Martha Wells is amazing as always. If you are just starting with the Raksuran series this book will be confusing, it is best to start with the Cloud Roads but I highly recommend the series. I will be reading this one again (and again)

The last entry in the Books of the Raksura series does not disappoint. Picking up right where Edge of Worlds left off we see how everybody reacts to the betrayal and watch as they work to counter it and also discover what the secret is that was stolen. The most standard part of this novel for me was how Moon Jade and the rest of Raksura dealt with everything they were going through and what their friends and family were going through. Also Malachite is freaking epic! More exploring strange and awesome new places and meeting interesting new people along with plenty of ancient ruins.

a good read

Martha Wells wraps up her Raksura series with this action-packed and heartwarming story that has it all - Moon, Jade and their friends plus the heavy guns; Pearl and Malachite, with an interesting supporting ensemble. A looming catastrophe, strange ancient magic and unlikely alliances take us all over the Three Worlds and their fascinating inhabitants. An excellent book.

Have read all these books by this author. Love the stories and the ideas.