All good things must come to an end.

“Ember’s End” the final book in S. D. Smith’s Green Ember series was possibly my favorite book in the quartet. I thought books 2 and 3 had moments where things dragged on, the series does include impossible battle after impossible battle, but those are a couple of their few faults.

I loved the character development of Picket and Heather Longtreader, their story arcs and the conclusion of their journey from a sheltered life in hiding to the most celebrated rabbits in history. Smith compared his quartet to a famous hero of his, J.R.R. Tolkien, whose trilogy is one of the most beloved of all time. There are definitely whispers of Tolkien in his writing and storytelling, but Smith’s legend stands out on its own among great fantasy series.

I think he did a great job in the final book of the Green Ember series tying up loose ends and bringing closure the story. I really enjoyed the style of writing Smith employed. There wasn’t any stream of consciousness “jumping” through history back and forth in time, most of the story was laid out from the beginning and walked through book by book until the end.

The target age group is probably 7-10 years old, but it was enjoyed by my 5-year-old and even almost 3-year-old, even if he really didn’t understand the book. This is a series I would like to revisit with my kids again as they get older. It was definitely a story to return to again and again.

In the “Ember’s End” postscript by the author, Smith spoke about the Green Ember stories as a story from his family to our family. You could feel both his affection for his characters and subject and the readers he intended to delight through these books. I can without a doubt conclude that these family stories will definitely touch many other families for decades to come in the future.

Get a copy of “Ember’s End” by S.D. Smith on Amazon here.