Review Detail

THE ETERNAL ONES by Namina Forna is the third and final novel in the Deathless series that opens with Deka in extreme suffering. If she doesn’t connect with her kelai quickly, she will die, but she’s unsure of where it is or how to find it— and worse, she’s not ready for what happens when she does. Luckily, Gods she didn’t know existed step in to help her and her friends on their journey, setting them on a path to unite Deka with her lifeforce so she can take down the Idugu and Gilded Ones once and for all, and save Otera from a bleak future, even if that means sacrificing herself.

Overall, I love the world that Forna created in this series. It’s imaginative and unique, but still familiar, making it easy to draw parallels to our society. Getting to revisit Otera and spend time with these characters again is such a welcomed treat. The way Forna sets up Deka’s found family is so heartwarming, and in THE ETERNAL ONES, we get to see them step up and support one another again.

That said, for such an expansive story, this novel never quite hits its stride with pacing. Part of that is because a lot of the content is backstory — filling Deka in on what she didn’t know. There are some big fight scenes and reveal moments, but for a book that’s almost 500 pages, we rehash a lot of similar ideas from the previous books. Even with the introduction of the new Gods, they don’t inject enough freshness into the story to move it along, because they give us big information dumps. In other words, Deka gets told new things as opposed to us being in the action with her discovering them. As a result, the story and emotional beats feel off in terms of timing and effectiveness.

Putting that aside, I still recommend the Deathless series and am glad I had to opportunity to read it! I loved getting to know Deka and her friends. Leading up to THE ETERNAL ONES, Forna did a great job in developing her characters, making everyone individuals with their own pasts and hopes for the future. Yet again, the cover of this book is absolutely gorgeous, and Forna clearly has a bright future ahead of her!