Review: Christopher Bunn weaves a captivating fantasy in The Wicked Day
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 1, 2011
The Wicked Day (The Tormay Trilogy #3) is the third and final book in the Tormay Trilogy, which started with The Hawk And His Boy. I found myself captivated by this whole series by Christopher Bunn.Although it reads like a young adult book, he does such a masterful job of creating tension that just pulls me along and makes it hard to put down that I thoroughly enjoyed all three books despite my being decades past young adult.  The Wicked Day finally introduces the fourth anbeorum, the anbeorum of fire. What a surprise that was.He has a fascinating cast of characters, such as the protagonist, Jute, a boy raised in the streets by The Thieves Guild. Jute, in The Hawk And His Boy, was ordered to retrieve a box from a house heavily guarded by magical wards. Instructed not to open the box, as soon as he grabbed it, the box popped open and he cut himself on the blade of the knife that rested within. That started our adventure because that event was when the energy and memories of the murdered anbeorum of Wind transferred to Jute.It's the duty of the four anbeorum to protect the continent of Tormay from the Dark and its minions. This is very much a Good versus Evil story that includes its own creation mythology for how evil, The Dark, came to be and how the anbeorum, as agents of Light, assumed their responsibilities as guardians, one each for earth, wind, fire and sea.Throughout the trilogy, we deal with the battle really between love and power. The most interesting part is the philosophical (psychological) point that we all have the Light and the Dark within ourselves. It's this conflict within Jute that creates the most interesting tension for me.  He ultimately paid a steep price for indulging that dark side.I got a kick out of the Ghost, who provides comic relief, though at times I wanted him to just shut up. In the end, he earned their indulgence.I have only minor points as criticism. This is basically the story of Jute so I would occasionally wonder how the writer knew what the other characters were thinking. In these moments Bunn lapsed into telling, not showing. The other side of my criticism is that I really wanted to know the information reviewed this way. The big plus is that he addressed all of the issues left hanging before the end of the book, like what happened to the sceadu left in the tunnels.Despite any minor criticisms, I am giving this trilogy five stars because the stories were so captivating I didn't want to quit reading. Great job, Christopher Bunn!The Wicked Day (The Tormay Trilogy #3)