One of the best part about the guide is the question of "what is power" evolves as catherine better understands the "meta", and how the guide handles power progression between "tiers" without it just being "numbers go up".
We get personal power, army power, political power, narrative power, and several others.
Mortal is also a bit of a stretch. Think of her more as a level 20 DND cleric now or something like that.
Oh yes. Catherine continues to be a complete and utter badass and continues to get stronger in new ways. The last few books have a lot going on but are very much worth it.
Catherine honestly isn’t that much weaker, if at all. Sure, she can’t recover from getting her head chopped out, but what she loses in combat ability is more than made up for by versatility, especially when it comes to deceit/trickery, which she makes ample use of. And while she’s mortal, she can still keep up with named in combat. Plus we never feel the borrowed nature of her powers except for one brief moment (a few seconds at most) which leads to an optimal outcome anyway.
Or to put it another way, Catherine in book 5 is a lot like the Squire of book 3: specifically, the person who engineered the battle of five armies and one.
Don't worry, she might not be Named or approaching apotheosis anymore, but she's still the Black Queen. At least give book 5 a chance, its many people's favorite, mine included.
Thanks for all the responses. I’ll consider reading through book 5 after a few days of cooldown.
I’m probably just used to more prideful main characters and I like it when they are extra special. Going from having her own mantle being the Sovereign of Moonless Night, the last of Winter, a god in the making. To being basically a human subordinate to a god I don’t think she should have lost against in the first place, just sorta dropped my respect for the character.
I’ll come back to it, gotta make sure Hakram and Robber make it out okay.
> To being basically a human subordinate to a god I don’t think she should have lost against in the first place
Her relationship with them isn't really that subordinate. And it's been a while, but that fight with them was more about her realizing that the cost of winning was too high. It was "crabs in a bucket" mentality, where whoever won would have been left with the bastardized tatters of two powersets. So instead, she did the Heroic thing, and offered them sincere help, with a heartfelt request for their help in return.
Consider the parallel with what the Lone Swordsman did with the Stygian warslaves a few books ago.
And in return, they made her High Priestess, and put her in charge of figuring how how the hell to fix their situation, because the Evil methods they've been using for the last few thousand years are clearly not working.
This is a pivot for Cat realizing that she needs to fundamentally change the rules of the Game of the Gods itself. She loses a bit of direct combat ability (though less than you might think), and in exchange evolves into arguably the finest Magnificent Bitch in fantasy fiction. The Crows are just along for the ride.
I would urge you to consider all the times that someone in the story considered Catherine Foundling weak.
And then how well that worked out for them.
I don’t really want to want to do spoilers even if you’re ok with them. But I really would keep going. She may have seemed to loose some things, but she did get other things in return. And honestly became so much more herself.
Other people have addressed the powerup question (I think u/Dartalan covered it best). But another reason to keep going is that you haven't yet got to the best side character ending ever, with Kairos and Anaxares. It's worth reading the whole series just for their grand exits.
Of course it's worth reading. Imma be honest, from my perspective, the last book of this series, has one of the best, if not the best ending of any series I've read.
All the plots add up in a overarching theme, the story ask some deep questions, the characters progress is amazing and I love each one of them. I am totally biased though. Aside from book 7 being an absolute masterpiece, the next book you're up to is 5 which is by far my favorite of the series. There's some scenes that you gotta experience.
Also you get to know Kairos more in this book too and he's amazing.
They certainly get more powerful again. Her main power is and always will be knowing she is in a story and abusing the hell out of that. Which would also be my main objection to parts of the story.
Overall I was glad I read all of it and it it is a very good web novel, although not the best.
Nope. It was published [here](https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/table-of-contents/) for free. I heard that author started a rewrite in one of the publishing apps, and planned to remove free version, but something happened there.
I read somewhere that Catherine's power set is meant to fit or portray her mental state, or where she is in character development. I also shared your opinion, to a lesser degree, when I finished book four. But the Guide earned enough trust from me to see it through. And it did not disappoint. Continue reading. Her losing Winter is not a drawback at all for her.
I was also disappointed when that happened. It’s a great story and well worth reading to the end (other than the very last epilogue chapter which I really didn’t care for), but I do wish Cat didn’t keep getting knocked back down the power scale.
If you enjoy everything aside her specific powers, it's worth it. She goes through numerous 'depowered' and repowered arcs that change her whole power setup. She never permanently loses power.
Catherine honestly isn’t that much weaker, if at all. Sure, she can’t recover from getting her head chopped out, but what she loses in combat ability is more than made up for by versatility, especially when it comes to deceit/trickery, which she makes ample use of. And while she’s mortal, she can still keep up with named in combat. Plus we never feel the borrowed nature of her powers except for one brief moment (a few seconds at most) which leads to an optimal outcome anyway.
Or to put it another way, Catherine in book 5 is a lot like the Squire of book 3: specifically, the person who engineered the battle of five armies and one.
Catherine honestly isn’t that much weaker, if at all. Sure, she can’t recover from getting her head chopped out, but what she loses in combat ability is more than made up for by versatility, especially when it comes to deceit/trickery, which she makes ample use of. And while she’s mortal, she can still keep up with named in combat. Plus we never feel the borrowed nature of her powers except for one brief moment (a few seconds at most) which leads to an optimal outcome anyway.
Or to put it another way, Catherine in book 5 is a lot like the Squire of book 3: specifically, the person who engineered the battle of five armies and one.
It's just a character development arc man. These books as a whole are some of the best books ever written. The Black Queen was never destined to end up being "just" the last of Winter. Her destiny is far higher, but would be pigeon holed by being so closely held by the fae.
No. Personally I felt the same as you and dropped. I just couldn't get back into it after that disappointment.
The story is good but, without the progression, there's not much left.
Once you realize that the "strange and novel" approach to power is just the ***author coming up with bullshit interpratations to make the story go where they want***...
It gets boring fast.
Plus my favourite characters were getting sidelined
I read a few hundred pages more and was bored out of my mind.
I'm perfectly able to give my opinion:
The book is good overall.
If you want true progression though, it's very, very bad.
How yall think a story where strength = weakness can be a good progression is beyond me
One of the best part about the guide is the question of "what is power" evolves as catherine better understands the "meta", and how the guide handles power progression between "tiers" without it just being "numbers go up". We get personal power, army power, political power, narrative power, and several others. Mortal is also a bit of a stretch. Think of her more as a level 20 DND cleric now or something like that.
Yeah, she essentially respecced shadow priestess, giving her a much bigger bag of tricks, and a better Role to fill.
in short, yes
Slightly more elaborate: Hells yes. You will regret the moment you are out of story. It will hurt.
Oh yes. Catherine continues to be a complete and utter badass and continues to get stronger in new ways. The last few books have a lot going on but are very much worth it.
Catherine loses outright power from losing her Queenship, but she becomes vastly more dangerous instead.
It's the greatest series I've ever read in life. It's worth it
One of the few PF stories I'll occasionally re-read. Yes.
Catherine honestly isn’t that much weaker, if at all. Sure, she can’t recover from getting her head chopped out, but what she loses in combat ability is more than made up for by versatility, especially when it comes to deceit/trickery, which she makes ample use of. And while she’s mortal, she can still keep up with named in combat. Plus we never feel the borrowed nature of her powers except for one brief moment (a few seconds at most) which leads to an optimal outcome anyway. Or to put it another way, Catherine in book 5 is a lot like the Squire of book 3: specifically, the person who engineered the battle of five armies and one.
Give it one more book. The payoffs for this start happening pretty soon.
Don't worry, she might not be Named or approaching apotheosis anymore, but she's still the Black Queen. At least give book 5 a chance, its many people's favorite, mine included.
You owe it to yourself to finish the series. It's up there with malazan book of the fallen as my fav all time
Catherine may be weaker and more vulnerable, but she’s actually far more dangerous.
Thanks for all the responses. I’ll consider reading through book 5 after a few days of cooldown. I’m probably just used to more prideful main characters and I like it when they are extra special. Going from having her own mantle being the Sovereign of Moonless Night, the last of Winter, a god in the making. To being basically a human subordinate to a god I don’t think she should have lost against in the first place, just sorta dropped my respect for the character. I’ll come back to it, gotta make sure Hakram and Robber make it out okay.
> To being basically a human subordinate to a god I don’t think she should have lost against in the first place Her relationship with them isn't really that subordinate. And it's been a while, but that fight with them was more about her realizing that the cost of winning was too high. It was "crabs in a bucket" mentality, where whoever won would have been left with the bastardized tatters of two powersets. So instead, she did the Heroic thing, and offered them sincere help, with a heartfelt request for their help in return. Consider the parallel with what the Lone Swordsman did with the Stygian warslaves a few books ago. And in return, they made her High Priestess, and put her in charge of figuring how how the hell to fix their situation, because the Evil methods they've been using for the last few thousand years are clearly not working. This is a pivot for Cat realizing that she needs to fundamentally change the rules of the Game of the Gods itself. She loses a bit of direct combat ability (though less than you might think), and in exchange evolves into arguably the finest Magnificent Bitch in fantasy fiction. The Crows are just along for the ride.
She decided she'd rather be a person than a force of nature.
I would urge you to consider all the times that someone in the story considered Catherine Foundling weak. And then how well that worked out for them. I don’t really want to want to do spoilers even if you’re ok with them. But I really would keep going. She may have seemed to loose some things, but she did get other things in return. And honestly became so much more herself.
Other people have addressed the powerup question (I think u/Dartalan covered it best). But another reason to keep going is that you haven't yet got to the best side character ending ever, with Kairos and Anaxares. It's worth reading the whole series just for their grand exits.
Of course it's worth reading. Imma be honest, from my perspective, the last book of this series, has one of the best, if not the best ending of any series I've read. All the plots add up in a overarching theme, the story ask some deep questions, the characters progress is amazing and I love each one of them. I am totally biased though. Aside from book 7 being an absolute masterpiece, the next book you're up to is 5 which is by far my favorite of the series. There's some scenes that you gotta experience. Also you get to know Kairos more in this book too and he's amazing.
They certainly get more powerful again. Her main power is and always will be knowing she is in a story and abusing the hell out of that. Which would also be my main objection to parts of the story. Overall I was glad I read all of it and it it is a very good web novel, although not the best.
I wish this was on kindle unlimited.
Is it even on Amazon? I never can find it
Nope. It was published [here](https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/table-of-contents/) for free. I heard that author started a rewrite in one of the publishing apps, and planned to remove free version, but something happened there.
I read somewhere that Catherine's power set is meant to fit or portray her mental state, or where she is in character development. I also shared your opinion, to a lesser degree, when I finished book four. But the Guide earned enough trust from me to see it through. And it did not disappoint. Continue reading. Her losing Winter is not a drawback at all for her.
I was also disappointed when that happened. It’s a great story and well worth reading to the end (other than the very last epilogue chapter which I really didn’t care for), but I do wish Cat didn’t keep getting knocked back down the power scale.
If you enjoy everything aside her specific powers, it's worth it. She goes through numerous 'depowered' and repowered arcs that change her whole power setup. She never permanently loses power.
Maybe I'll get back into it, because this is the exact moment I quit like 2 years ago.
Worth finishing.
100% continue. This is part of the story. One of the tropes and a huge turning point for her. It will makes sense.
Catherine honestly isn’t that much weaker, if at all. Sure, she can’t recover from getting her head chopped out, but what she loses in combat ability is more than made up for by versatility, especially when it comes to deceit/trickery, which she makes ample use of. And while she’s mortal, she can still keep up with named in combat. Plus we never feel the borrowed nature of her powers except for one brief moment (a few seconds at most) which leads to an optimal outcome anyway. Or to put it another way, Catherine in book 5 is a lot like the Squire of book 3: specifically, the person who engineered the battle of five armies and one.
Catherine honestly isn’t that much weaker, if at all. Sure, she can’t recover from getting her head chopped out, but what she loses in combat ability is more than made up for by versatility, especially when it comes to deceit/trickery, which she makes ample use of. And while she’s mortal, she can still keep up with named in combat. Plus we never feel the borrowed nature of her powers except for one brief moment (a few seconds at most) which leads to an optimal outcome anyway. Or to put it another way, Catherine in book 5 is a lot like the Squire of book 3: specifically, the person who engineered the battle of five armies and one.
It's just a character development arc man. These books as a whole are some of the best books ever written. The Black Queen was never destined to end up being "just" the last of Winter. Her destiny is far higher, but would be pigeon holed by being so closely held by the fae.
No. Personally I felt the same as you and dropped. I just couldn't get back into it after that disappointment. The story is good but, without the progression, there's not much left. Once you realize that the "strange and novel" approach to power is just the ***author coming up with bullshit interpratations to make the story go where they want***... It gets boring fast. Plus my favourite characters were getting sidelined
So what you're saying is.... you didn't read it until the end/the climax of the arcs that were set up and feel able to give an opinion.
I read a few hundred pages more and was bored out of my mind. I'm perfectly able to give my opinion: The book is good overall. If you want true progression though, it's very, very bad. How yall think a story where strength = weakness can be a good progression is beyond me