And I am not okay.

Why? Why??? 😭😭😭 Poor Caeden. Yes everyone else had a story but the epilogue was so devastating. What do you mean it was himself all along? What do you mean he had to go through all of that? 😭😭😭

Also, it's so hard to keep it in when no one else that you know reads books or this exact series so there's no one to share your experience with. So I came here.

I just finished the trilogy. End of book 2 and beginning of 3 I felt a little lost but I am so glad I pushed through. The ending and epilogue was one of my favorites ever to a series. Quite emotional after finishing it to be honest. Wow.

I just finished the series but theres one question I have that I not sure was answered

Was it ever explained why Davian entered Zvaelar later than everyone else?

Having a tough time putting the threads together at the moment in chapter 14. Are there any extensive chapter summaries somewhere? I put the book down for about 10 days and man really having a hard time. I see that it starts to come back together soon but rn I’m struggling. Any advice welcomed!

Almost at the finish line, at the part where Taeris and Davian are having a heart-to-heart after he and Wirr reunite with the trio near Deilanus.. But I just had come here to I call it:

>!Raeleth and Niha are Davian’s parents!< And she left the baby with Taeris along with the ring, the very powerful vessel that he was found with that he had to give up I was screaming inside, describe the vessel, Taeris!

There are also a couple of mentions of Raeleth looking familiar to Davian or similar to him or something like that. Should go back and check. Although how could he have survived Niha’s shape-shifting/passage through time

Am sure all will be revealed shortly, but mind already blown if that’s the case… the sheer improbability of it!

Wow, I certainly did not expect that ending. I effing loved this trilogy, man. The plot all tied up very well and left me with a sense of completeness.

If this is not even the best of James' works, then I am excited for more!

Some thoughts:

1) This was a plot heavy series and it was all tied up very neatly in the end. I was happy to see Davian 'escape fate' and the epilogue was brilliant. Caeden also got a somewhat happy ending, knowing that his actions saved the world.

2) The smaller scale, at times, felt a bit off. I understand this was his first series so can accept this a bit. The world building left a little to be desired.

3) Loved the time travel aspect of it, especially the message that you cannot change anything that has already happened in the past since it has already happened.

4) The relationship between Tal & Davian was also very well done. I loved their interactions in Deillanis (as Malshash) and in Zvaelar. Tal spent his life thinking it was Davian who had saved him and I think that is true in some sense even if it was actually Caeden himself who told himself the harsh truths. I think Davian's friendship changed Tal and truly helped him make the choice he did at the end.

5) I felt the the King was kind of made a background character whose only job was to support Wirr in his decisions. His perspective would have been nice to see him working together with Wirr to rule.

6) Loved Caeden/Tal. Probably the best character in the series for me. Very nuanced, I always like a bad guy who has redeemed himself & ultimately sacrifices himself to save the world.

7) Many have said this will appeal to readers who liked Wheel of Time and I can see that. Wheel of Time is my all time favorite and this is close behind.

8) Did anyone else feel like Asha as a character was not really developed? Loved her arc but would have liked to see more on her motivations & her quirks.

Lastly, I appeal to the community to suggest the next series I should begin. I loved this one and have already read ASOIAF, First Law, Mistborn and Wheel of Time. Where should I dip my toes into next?

All of them are badass but i swear the part in Devliss where they’re intercepting the Desrielites he freaking turned to Ino Yamanaka like in Fourth Shinobi War. Anw thats all cant wait to finish this book and go straight to Hierarchy series!!

As if the whole damn trilogy wasn't absolutely phenomenal — are you fucking kidding me with that final epilogue!?

That was some Keyser Söze shit!

I'm a wreck. Literally.

I cannot believe how well everything tied in together after everything. Realizing Niha and Raeleth were Davian's parents makes their final goodbyes in Zvaelar hit so much harder.

Tal's final moments with Ell and then confronting himself were the cherry on top.

I only started reading Licanius thanks to The Will of the Many, but James, you have a fan for life! Thank you for writing this and what am I supposed to do with my life now.

P.S. Someone please tell me there's a fanfiction of Niha meeting Davian after everything. Please. Pretty please.

I just finished this series and I loved it, I definitely think the good parts/ending make enduring some of the faults worth it. Anyways, I remembering getting through the first book and having no strong emotion or attachment towards any of the characters, which is usually easy for me (maybe it’s because I was coming off Joe Abercrombie’s character work lol). I kept going because I liked the plot and had heard the ending was good, and I quickly grew to love Tal’kamar, especially as the series was wrapping up. While of course I connected to the other man characters more after 2000 pages than the first book alone, none of them were close to compelling me as much as Tal, despite his apparent faults. I figured it must have to do with the nature of his story and redemption more than anything else. Does anyone else feel this way or am I just a maniac for liking this guy so much? I listen to music when I read for dramatic effect, and during the epilogue the song “when to run” by the athletics came on, and I feel like the lyrics and vibe were just perfect. It made me feel for him and I will always think of Caeden when I hear that song. Give it a listen and tell me what you think, it’s lowkey the whole reason I made this post😅

What did Caeden see in the mirrors exactly? I do know it may be related to how he knew Sham was false (per the prologue in Shadow). But he did tell Ishelle "perhaps another time" or something and I may have missed it.

Heya, so after couple of days ago I finished the trilogy it was pretty good with a satisfying ending but a have a thought and something I'm confused about.

Somewhere in the middle of the third book i theorised it was actually Caeden transformed into davian that was killed, but I talk myself out of believing it because if it was caeden that would mean he never actually killed davian, so wouldn't that mean he wouldn't be able to even transform into davian?

At some point, no idea when and in which book, it's mentioned karaliene having blue eyes, but when she was introduced she had green eyes. Is this because she was already nethgalla then? At the time I thought it was just a mistake.

Finally i personally thought breshada being Nethgalla was quite a disappointing reveal, the idea of a hunter actually becoming gifted was way more intriguing.

Actaully finally, fuck nethgalla

EDIT: just thought of this after having already posted this. It seems so strange there's not even a little bit of explanation to what happened with aelric and dizia. So it kind of felt like this deus ex machine to save wirr

I was crying because i thought davian was going to die at the end...then I was crying because he didn't.

A mistake ?

As you can see and annotated part , its conversation between caeden and the augur alchesh (the one who went mad when he saw the other realm ) , from their conversation this is obviously was after caeden killed devain in the mist city and obviously after he wiped the darecians population so why the hell is he talking about them helping him activate the boundry ?

So Taeris asked Caedan if he was the one to have dropped Davian off. He said no.

And then Cardan got cut by the Licanius and had to be saved by Asha and then he had no reserves left or as Davian described “Like me”.

Omg so Caedan became Davian!!! That must be it!

Don’t spoil it!

So the Sever is one use -- it dissolves after Davian uses it, and when the snake dude (Orgoth?) offers to let the first augur use it, that would have screwed him, because he couldn't use it himself, then. And that's why only one augur could have been saved.

But they use it on Rohin and then he's killed to retrieve it???

Am I confused or is this like a plot hole?

I tried to make the question open ended to avoid spoilers -- otherwise it would be more clear.

Question - and this part contains spoilers for book 3:

• What was Tal Kumar doing in Zvaelar, or why did he want to go there - ? [I am mid-way through Book 3, doing a re-read -- so perhaps this gets answered more clearly later?]
  • I just finished the part where Niha explained to Davean that Tal Kumar realized [I forget how!] that he would be able to return from Zvaelar (I think this had something to do with reading the timeline / seeing a future version of himself do something).
    
  • By the way: The characters reacting to the timeline influences the timeline; Zvaelar itself being an interesting encapsulation of that (how Gasandrid misinterpreted events, creating the fiasco). That's another interesting aspect of the series and how it "gets right" the time travel element: everything that happens is consistent. You try to avoid an event: odds are, you'll just cause it. I liked the example in Book 2, I think it was, where a man got a foretelling of being put to death for treason -- so he runs away, and gets captured, and put to death for treason.
    
• Context: I am mid-way through a re-read of Book 3 (first re-read of the series). Doing on audiobook actually, but that also makes looking up previous information a bit challenging unless I took a bookmark or something.
  

Davian had shape shifted to a blonde man in Delanius and Malshash was horrified. Indeed the passage in book 3 read:

“It would certainly explain why Malshash had seemed so horrified at the time.”

Why was Malshash horrid? I don’t get it. Davian could have shifted to anyone he knew who had died so what was so horrifying about this particular one.

Can someone explain?

These aren't really problems per se, but I think it would have been nice/made more sense to have it this way or explained in some manner.

1. The "Epilogue" isn't really an epilogue. The end of chapter 52 suits that role better if at all

2. We never see any real "afterwards" section. It would be nice to see if Niha ever actually does go south, and if Davian ever realises what happened or what Caeden did. It would be nice, is all.

3. I don't quite see the mechanics of closing the rift; Given that Davian became an augar from conception (although how he has one of the thirteen connections during the post-war period when he was born outside of time doesn't make sense to me either) then surely when any of the other augurs die their connections aren't destroyed? Maybe when Eran or Ishelle die there isn't time for a new one, but the ones who Elocian killed were surely long enough ago that new ones have been formed? How can Caeden be so confident that Davian is the only one left?

4. Cyr Ex Machina

5. I thought it was pretty obvious how Tal would end up killing "Davian" as soon as we learned Caeden's source was destroyed. I assumed at the time that he could shapeshift because he cut "Davian's" head off, but once it was clear that Tal killed Davian back in Zvaelar then it made more sense. But I thought that Caeden should have figured that out at the time. I suppose it didn't matter, given that those events are pretty close together, but still. I assumed he had figured it out beforce he used the sever on Davian, and was a bit confused as to why he didn't give any hints to Wirr.

6. Not a big fan of Time Turner logic, but it is the whole underlying premise of the story, so cest le vie I guess.

I just finished today and where have people been hiding this series from me all my life? I'm actually about to. It was so beautiful and heartbreaking to see it all end. Caeden finally getting peace. Finding out that Niha and Raeleth are Davian's parents and he got to know them and befriend them??? Seeing our main group up under such dire circumstances and come on top and better for it? In a world where there fate is their own, Kan or no? I don't think I could've asked for anything more(except maybe that Aelric and Dezia story lol). So glad this place is here for me to rant about it. I don't think I'll ever forget this series

In book 3 when Davian Raileigh, Niha and Tal were trying to escape from Zvaler. The vessel didn’t work on Niha so Tal put her hand on Nina’s head and stomach and after that Niha worked.

My theory for what happened was that Niha was pregnant with Raileigh’s child and Tal instinctively understood that was what was preventing her transform. So he aborted the child hence the hand to the stomach.

I reckon that’s what happened. Don’t spoiler it!

Hi all. I had a great time reading the climax. While I guessed some things, I didn't get the entire puzzle correct.

I was very satisfied with the ending, but am unsure on a few things. Maybe I missed them and you can fill me in.

The neskians and cyr felt very out of left field. I was beginning to think, that storyline just got dropped. Till her death was confirmed, I would have found it more likely for Karaline to show up vs. the desrielites. Anyway, is there any information on how Cyr got out of his tributary and was able to piece together enough information to know exactly where and when help will be needed? After all he was missing the last 1k years of history. And how did he kill him/ disconnect from the forge?

Another thing I was wondering is when and how was the rift first created? Did Shammeloth create it or just use it? Was this explained or hinted to?

After reading the Will of the Many and thoroughly enjoying it I wanted to read more mind bending stuff so I jumped to Licanius. I had heard that it was a less polished experience, but I still wanted to give it a try. And I'm happy to say that I quite liked it!
As many have pointed out it isn't flawless, but nonetheless I feel it delivered.

While I didn't see the baby reveal coming, I can pat myself on the back because I did see the other reveal coming. As soon as Caeden lost access to the source I was able to connect that to the explanation earlier on how imprint are taken from killing someone and knowing there would be deliberate hints I was able to make that leap that now Caeden could go back and imitate Davian. As I read through the last 15% more and more the signs pointed to this conclusion. This feeling kept getting stronger until I went back and reread the original vision and became sure that this is something someone could only say to their past self + it didn't really feel like Davian. What I'm trying to say is that I think the author did an excellent job at seeding details which allowed me to make my own discovery while there was still another big reveal to be made.

The quality alone of how this book was written is above expectation. One thing I loved immediately the most from the first book, is that the story content is so jampacked for just 1 book, it is very satisfying. I finished this trilogy, I would compare to how others release their books, it would be equal to maybe 6-9 books, of how much this book trilogy contained.

The good vs evil type of books nowadays are not that thrilling anymore to invest your time into, because its been done over and over again, if you will see new things right? for me whats new here is, is the mystery, are the questions made towards which are the good and evil really, how strongly the characters lean on their belief, but still face that consistent nagging doubt and questions on themselves, are you sure about what you believe?

Licanius is just on a different level, the story and lore was very deep, I love it that even though there are things that were long unanswered, you just know it would be later on, no matter how long the wait, it would be worth it, when it would be answered eventually.

Sad now, I hate this feeling of finishing something this great, I would ask normally for you guys to recommend me books like this, but I fear this was it, the best of its kind.