Author: J.V. Hilliard
Originally Published in 2023
Review by Miriam Atkinson
The Trillias Gambit is the third book in J.V. Hilliard’s high fantasy Warminster series.
The book continues immediately after the events of Vorodin’s Lair. Daemus and his mixed group of allies travel to the labyrinth created by the only god-like Ancient to still live in Warminster – Trillias. There they must find the lost Tome of Enlightenment in order to restore the Keepers’ power of Sight.
At the same time young lovers Addilyn and Ritter travel to the latter’s home in order to help defend the Keep against the armies of the usurper King Von Lormarck who finally makes his move against Thronehelm and their allies.
Largely missing from the second instalment, I was pleased that Hilliard chose to re-include the battles and action scenes in The Trillias Gambit. From the amount of detail the author incorporates, his enjoyment of writing these scenes is clear and that in turn makes them fun to read. My favourite fight sequence was the tense chase between Daemus’ group and the cryptids in the dark of the labyrinth.
Another thing I thought this third book did well was that it resolved a lot of plot threads. There have been many storylines built over the first two novels but The Trillias Gambit is the first time we’ve seen a firm conclusion to some of these arcs. Many of the storylines were ended swiftly and bloodily. While I personally would have like to have seen a different ending for some characters, with the final showdown between Daemus and Greytorris fast approaching in the final book I do think it was a smart decision to close some plotlines in this novel which will hopefully allow more time for the climax of the next book.
Three books in and I am still of the opinion that the Warminster series has too many side characters to properly keep track of (at least for me) and to devote enough time too. For example supporting characters such as Ember and Montgomery had much smaller, albeit important roles, in this book compared to the previous two. I respect that this is Hilliard’s style of storytelling but, for me, the excessive amount of characters and names did again cause me some confusion.
However one character that really surprised me was the Bone Elf assassin Incanus. One of several villains in the series, Incanus never held the same interest for me as I know he did for other readers. His was one plotline I thought should have been resolved fairly quickly given the amount of big power-hungry villains in the series. But in The Trillias Gambit Hilliard includes an unexpected backstory for Incanus and a tragic one at that. For me this pushed Incanus into the interesting three-dimensional character zone and the chapters told from his perspective were actually my favourite in this book.
The Trillias Gambit is a book for established readers of the Warminster series. I would recommend that new readers start at the beginning of the series in order to understand the events of this book.
I think this is my favourite book in the series so far, primarily because we finally see a resolution to events that have been building for the past two novels. There is still lots left for the fourth book to explore and I’m interested to find out how Hilliard chooses to finish his series.
A digital copy of ‘The Trillias Gambit’ and the images used in this review were kindly provided by the team at JV Hilliard Books. For more information check out Hilliard’s Website.
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