Reviewing "The Soul Thieves" - Book 3 of The Snow-Walker Trilogy

The first two books of The Snow-Walker Trilogy create a gradual climb in tension, leading to the ultimate showdown of Gudrun and Kari. When Gudrun puts a sleeping spell on the kingdom and steals the soul of their king’s fiancée, Kari sees it is a ploy to get him to come to her. Jessa, Kari and his warrior-guardian Brochael, Hakon (who is now training to be a warrior), and the poet Skapti set out into the forbidden north where the Snow Walkers live. 

There’s a lot going for this setup, as it gets the main characters out of the safety of the kingdom, forces them to rely on each other, and separates them from the secondary characters so that the reader knows that only the main characters will have a part in this epic battle of good vs. evil. Along the way they’re joined by a mysterious outlaw who could betray them (a la Gollum in The Lord of the Rings) add an unexpected factor that Gudrun hasn’t counted on.

They travel through vast wastelands of snow and ice, through bogs and haunted forests…basically a frozen Mordor. One of the more interesting parts is when they come across a band of people who live in the bog—archaeologists have discovered mummified “bog bodies” throughout northeastern Europe, and this portion of the plot gives some idea of how those bodies might have ended up there.

If reading The Snow-Walker’s Son and The Empty Hand were like climbing a hill, The Soul Thieves felt like coming to a sheer drop, because everything that has been building up so far seems to fade away without resolution. Every character or plot point that seemed like it was foreshadowing something big (such as a new sword needing to be used in an adventure to get a name)…ultimately doesn’t have a huge impact (if any) on the climax of the story and of the series.

This is because once again Kari comes to the rescue. Throughout this series it’s obvious that he’d have this final confrontation with his mother. And, because good always defeats evil, the reader is confident that he will win. It’s just a matter of how.

As I neared the climax, I was sort of disappointed in the lack of character development, but thought perhaps this was about to change. Because the book is The Soul Thieves—plural—did that mean Kari would succumb to Gudrun’s mind control powers and go to the dark side (or the cold side, as both of them are pretty much pure white)? Would the wildcard outlaw betray them, or suddenly turn into an unlikely hero? Would Jessa be the person to defeat Gudrun while all her attention is focused on battling her son? Or if Kari did go evil, would Jessa’s friendship be the thing that pulled him back to good? Would one of the band of questers have to sacrifice himself (or herself)? Would the unnamed sword be used in this final confrontation?

As it turns out, none of these things happened. Kari goes to his mom and just…beats her. There’s no twist. He’s not tempted to join her side. None of the other characters really have a role in helping him.

Much is left unexplained. Could Kari become like his mother, gradually using more and more of his magical powers until he’s so drunk on them that he turns against his friends? What would keep any of the other Snow Walkers from conquering the kingdom again?

Sometimes it’s nice to have things left open, so that the reader feels like the characters go on having adventures after the book ends. But in this case, it was just unsatisfying.