Chimaera by Ian Irvine

After years of reading fantasy books I was so frustrated by the ending of this book that it's driven me to see if others felt the same way and here I am writing my first review. I felt the ending to be rushed and incomplete especially when we had so many pages describing the particulars of landscapes. Some bits seemed truncated like a parting of one of the main Aachim characters and one of the old humans. I *am* glad that some details are yet to be discovered (like who is the Numinator) but not happy having to read another series to discover the fate of one of the main characters. Anyway.....even with this I still give the book a reasonable rating due to the combination of variety of characters with different strengths, motivations and frailities, the dilemma about great power being good and bad, characters like Flydd working for the good of humanity with some dodgy attitudes and methods...of course the overall setting of multiple worlds and multiple races, who are wonderfully interlinked provides lots of rich possibilities. Final gripe...I think the meglomanic leaders (Vithis, etc) are bit 'overacted'. cheers all !

I admit, the ending to Chimaera did seem a little rushed. To end on such a cliffhanger, and having to wait for the next series to discover what happens in a let down.
After having said that, though, I can say that I thoroughly enjoyed Chimaera. Actually, I was so enthralled by the series of books that I had begun to read all day, every day until I finished the book.
The book didn't seem to answer the questions that have been on my mind since the beginning of the series. The numinator, for example, is probably the secret I desire to know the most. Who could it be? Is it even a character we've met, so far?
Chimaera has pulled me in, and now I am impatiently awaiting the first book in The Song of the Tears trilogy.
Ian Irvine is a fantastic author, and I hope he has much success in the future. I also hope he writes many more books in the universe of the Three Worlds!

I found the last installment of the 'Well of Echoes' quartet to be exactly what I expected it to be, a climactic conclusion of CURRENT events although I was dissapointed to find that perhaps too many secrets were revealed which made the book that much less attractive.
Ian Irvine spent more time on Chimaera (see www.ianirvine.com) than on any of the other books in the series so, as one would expect, the book turned out to be rather less concise then the former books and far more disjointed to boot. Thankfully we did not see a return to the rambling style of the 'View From The Mirror' quartet and we saw a plot as fast paced as ever.
I am grateful that Ian Irvine did not surcumb to the trap many authors do of explaining too much about the story line, or making free with 'secrets' as such behavior quickly loses the reader's interest. NOT knowing what will happen next is surprisingly more exciting then being able to guess, that is certain. On that note I would urge all of Ian Irvine's critics to observe his writing style, every single one of his novels ends with an overshadowing of doubt which is especially strong with the 'Well of Echoes' quartet - the rejection of humanity by the Aachim in Geomancer, the field failure during the Seige of Snizort in Tetrach and the impending execution of many main characters at the end of Scrutator (Alchemist for all you non aussies). Another thing I'd like to point out was that the un-happy incident at the end of the novel was fortold by Minis earlier in the series.

All this leads to the conclusion that Ian Irvine thought this through much deeper then what seems to be on the surface.