This book was a great end to a great series. I read all six books in the series one after the other. Since I don’t have a lot of spare time to read, this means I spent the past 52 days with these characters. I’m going to miss them. I almost don’t want to start my next book, because the characters I’ve grown attached to in this series won’t be there!

I was happy that we were given a few more answers about Link and Aide by the end of this book. It would have been interesting to get more details, but I think we were given what we needed. Although Link and Aide were the driving factors behind everything that was going on, they really weren’t the focus of the story so spending too much time on them might have hurt the pacing. As it was, in the last couple of books I started to feel like there were so many characters and plot threads that we didn’t get to spend enough time with each of the sets of characters. It wasn’t that I had trouble following the different plot threads, but rather that I just wanted to spend more time with each set of characters before moving on to the next group. I guess it’s a sign of a good book when you want more of it rather than less.

This series has been very consistent in terms of quality. I think, if somebody likes the first book, they can be pretty certain they’ll like the rest of the series. Normally, when I approach the end of a series, I worry about whether or not I’ll be satisfied with the ending. There’s nothing worse than reading a good series, investing all of that time and emotion into it, and then hating the way it ends. Enjoying the journey is important, but I care about the destination too. But I was never the least bit worried that I would hate the ending of this series. As I mentioned in a previous review, even the individual books within the series were wrapped up well. So, not surprisingly, I was happy with how all of the plot threads were tied up in this final book. While I wouldn’t have minded more time with all of the characters, I was satisfied with the way the series ended. ( )

"The Dance of Time" is the sixth and final book of the Belisarius series by David Drake and Eric Flint.

Overall, the story concludes the series in a somewhat interesting, though padded manner. Whereas the actual plot would probably consists of about 50% of the book, the other half consisted of side stories of various characters (and surprisingly of some new characters. i.e. Anne, the "Wife") that felt padded.

The book also continues a somewhat frustrating trend of glib dialogue between characters, with scenes that border on the melodramatic. However, if you've read this far, this will not be something new.

Quibbles aside, the book ends the series in a satisfactory manner, though I wish again (as with Tide of Victory) their choice in cover art was somewhat better (What the point of a blind soldier with a sword? It's not like he's Zatoichi.) ( )

A bittersweet ending for the Belisarius series. ( )

This book is a great conclusion to a great series I just wish Eric Flint would have told us what happend to all of Belisarius's faithful compainions later. ( )

Final volume of the alternate history/SF tale of General Belarsius ( )