Cold Steel

Written by Kate Elliott

Narrated by Charlotte Parry

The fantastic conclusion to the Spiritwalker trilogy! Trouble, treachery, and magic just won't stop plaguing Cat Barahal. The Master of the Wild Hunt has stolen her husband Andevai. The ruler of the Taino kingdom blames her for his mother's murder. The infamous General Camjiata insists she join his army to help defeat the cold mages who rule Europa. An enraged fire mage wants to kill her. And Cat, her cousin Bee, and her half-brother Rory, aren't even back in Europa yet, where revolution is burning up the streets. Revolutions to plot. Enemies to crush. Handsome men to rescue. Cat and Bee have their work cut out for them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 31, 2014
• ISBN: 9781470380168

Kate Elliott

Kate Elliott has been writing science fiction and fantasy for 30 years, after bursting onto the scene with Jaran. She is best known for her Crown of Stars epic fantasy series and the New York Times bestselling YA fantasy Court of Fives. Elliott's particular focus is immersive world-building & centering women in epic stories of adventure, amidst transformative cultural change. She lives in Hawaii, where she paddles outrigger canoes & spoils her Schnauzer.

Reviews for Cold Steel

[blodeuedd_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I tried my best, I really did. I read 100 boring pages that were just plainly confusing. Then I tried to read more, then I tried to skim but I could not even skim! I could not be bothered to read almost 800 pages of this boring boring boring book.

Such a disappointment, I LOVED book 1. Book 2 was not up to standard and this one I could not even finish. It reminded me of her fantasy book I tried to read and could not.

I had to check my review of book 2 and there I mentioned I was confused, but that it got better at the end. Still all I remember from that one is that I did not like it. I guess that last part swayed me.

Disappointing.

[tldegray-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Returning to Europa after the disastrous time in Taino isn't as easy as taking a ship. It's more like as difficult as walking through the land of the fey while being hunted by those who want to kill you and avoiding the deadly waves that sweep the land and change everything they encounter.

Bee and Cat are secure in their powers in this book, and Bee, especially, seems secure in all aspects of her life.

Naturally, as you'd expect in the third book, deadly secrets are revealed, and the fight to survive isn't simple. But Bee, Cat, Andevai, Rory, and the rest of the family they've found can do it.

[majkia · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Honestly, when you are fighting for your life, are you really commenting on how intricate the nearest man's clothes are and how good he looks in them?

[wyvernfriend · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Quite a good read but there were parts of it that didn't quite flow as well as I'd expect from Kate Elliott. The story finishes but isn't quite resolved, the character's story is resolved but the world isn't and I'm both pleased and somewhat displeased with that. It does leave openings for further stories in this world. More real-world than many fantasy novels, I felt that there was a history and a future in this world and that Cat and her friends improved the future of it and found ways to make life better for as many as they could and that they would continue to do so.I liked the action girl of Cat and Bee's use of words and I found it good.

[nnschiller · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a very satisfying conclusion to a rather well crafted trilogy. I'm not usually one who sets a lot of store on how a book ends. Books that hinge on how the thing ends seem to be wasting the chance to be worth reading on every page. The Spiritwalker series could have ended successfully before the final few chapters w/ Cat keeping her secrets and no one being the wiser. Yet the close and denouement were really cleverly done and wrapped up a lot of plot strings.

I'll be watching Kate Elliott. I was really impressed with this series.

[a_reader_of_fictions · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

My feelings for Kate Elliott's Spiritwalker trilogy have been all over the map, from boredom to fangirling to intense admiration to irritation. Most emotions it's capable for me to feel about a book, I've felt somewhere along the way through this series. Though I'm not entirely satisfied with the way that Cold Steel concluded everything, the Spiritwalker Trilogy stands out in my mind as one of my recent favorites, and will remain a much loved part of my collection. Though I do not usually do this, my Cold Steel review will be spoiler-free for the series.The biggest strength of this trilogy is Catherine (Cat). She's a plucky, intelligent, clever, sneaky, passionate, impulsive heroine, and I love her to bits. Certainly, at times, she can be quite frustrating, unwilling to look past her own stubbornness, and she often races into danger without a thought. Also, she's no sweet innocent; she will do bad or wild things, and she does not necessarily regret them. Cat is a powerful heroine in just about every meaning of the word.Even better, Elliott does not fall into the trap that so many authors do of writing only one strong female character, afraid that empowering women in general would lessen the heroine's specialness. Actually, pretty much every woman encountered within the pages of this trilogy is strong in one way or another, or perhaps more than one way. Cat's cousin, Bee, for example, isn't a fighter, but she can talk people into just about anything. Women are warriors, rulers, spiritual advisers, lawyers, and forces to be reckoned with. Also, these women are sexual beings, if they choose to be; the series is very sex positive, without a hint of slut-shaming. If you're tired of epic fantasy where women are marginalized, Elliott's series will be an icy breeze during a fire mage attack.Of course, the fact that Elliott wrote one of my favorite fictional couples doesn't hurt anything either. Cat and Vai have such powerful chemistry, and so much respect for one another, though it takes time to grow. They fight constantly, even in their most loving of moments, but they do not desire to change one another and they work through their relationship problems together. And, yes, they do have problems, as any couple composed of two such fiery people would.Kate Elliott's world building also deserves vast praise. She weaves together the mortal world and the spirit world into a visually stunning picture, all set in an alternate history version of our world. My memories of Cold Magic are too fuzzy for me to fully understand where that world diverged with this one, but I know it was cool. The cold and fire mages, the spirit courts, and the dragons are all conceptually fascinating and well-established.Where the series lags, however, is in the pacing. Throughout Cold Steel especially, I had trouble keeping track of the flow of time. Partly, this is intentional, since time does flow differently in the spirit world, but that's not where the problem really came from. I also feel like the concluding volume packed too much plot into the almost 600 pages, because I feel like characterization was not quite as strong, relying on what came before, rather than further developing the cast. As such, the rampant feels I had in Cold Fire were largely nonexistent. Cold Steel was an uneven read for me, with portions keeping me on the edge of my seat, and others just to be got through for the good stuff.This first read through did leave some elements to be desired, but I also know that there are things I missed. Though I don't keep too many of my books once I've read them, I'll be keeping this series, and I plan to reread it down the road, hopefully picking up on even more of the positive points than I noticed this time through.

[readinggeek451 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Cat returns to Europa to the middle of revolution, after a detour through the spirit world to rescue her husband. The plotting is a bit diffuse, jumping around all over the place, but it does tie together in the end.