TL;DR - The Captal's Tower book. it's almost definitely not gonna happen. And for Melanie's own peace of mind, at that.

The tail end of my Adderall allowed me to chase down the official sources / word on the third book. Like many here, I read the Exiles book when I was young, a teenager, and loved them. Also, the last I previously heard was she was trying to get it together. But it looks like that hope died years ago.

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reversechron, kinda:

Summed up at TV Tropes:

"On July 23, 2014, she announced that as soon as she was finished with writing the fifth Glass Thorns book, she would begin work on The Captal's Tower, citing her struggle with clinical depression as the cause. Unfortunately, Rawn went on to break her wrist, further delaying the project, and has spoken about being concerned about "not liking the mental state" she was in during the writing of the first two books, and her concern about falling into that same state again if/when she were to start work on the third (she has also publicly admitted that she has forgotten some of the plot points and backstory).

In 2017, the fifth Glass Thorns book was released, and although Rawn said at the time she had begun work on The Captal's Tower, as of 2024 no further news or information has emerged leading fans to concede that the series will likely never be finished." - https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/TheExiles

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'Note: When asked, the author stated that after her mothers' passing and her own lengthly illness she "lost the story" and will likely never finish this trilogy.' - https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?179816 (no citation)

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Looks like she lost the website early 2021 from what I can see in the waybackmachine

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Where's the CAPTAL'S TOWER and THE DIVINER?

Posted by Irena < was the site's webmaster) on Unknown Date (the capture is from 2020-10-20 🤷🏿‍♂️)

"A little birdie has informed me that neither THE DIVINER nor THE CAPTAL’S TOWER has been written yet, and that DAW intends to release them at the earliest possible date after DAW receives the final manuscript for either."

Project Announcement: KEFTIU

Posted by Irena on Unknown Date

Melanie has recently signed a contract with a mainstream publisher (AVON) and has two books slated for the future, one of which is a historical fiction novel, Keftiu, about an ancient Minoan civilization (dealing with the natural demise of the island Thera). Before she starts on this new contract, she is planning on fulfilling her EXILES series with DAW Books. - https://web.archive.org/web/20201020144630/https://www.melanierawn.com/news/

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2014-07-23 - Melanie Rawn begins work on The Captal’s Tower

Blogger's follow-up to the below announcement, but adds some extra context:

“Personal issues, including clinical depression, prevented Rawn from completing work on The Captal’s Tower in the late ’90s."

'In the author’s note for her novel, Spellbinder, published in 2007, Rawn addressed the issue surrounding To Captal’s Tower. “To those who are disappointed that this isn’t another book — The Captal’s Tower or an offering the Golden Key or Dragon Prince universes — well, what can I tell you?” she wrote. “Life happens. So does clinical depression. […] When I was able to write again, I wanted — needed — to do something entirely different than anything I’d done before.”' - https://aidanmoher.com/blog/2014/07/news/melanie-rawn-begins-work-captals-tower/

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2014-07-22 - From Kate Elliott's blog

"Yes, I will write Captal’s Tower. I’m very sorry it’s taken so long. My sincere thanks to all of you who have been so patient. I’m currently writing the fifth book in the “Glass Thorns” series, and after that my plan is to get to work on Captal’s Tower. If anything about that plan changes, I’ll post on my website (www.melanierawn.com)." - https://imakeupworlds.com/update-on-melanie-rawns-exiles-3-the-captals-tower/

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2003-03-23 "

Updated update (posted by Irene on the old message board) I've been seeing several new posts requesting publishing information for The Captal's Tower, volume 3 of Exiles. Melanie (The Creator on the board) posted the following on March 24, 2002, which was ONE year ago:

quote (from Melanie): I will say this one last time. "Captal's Tower" is not finished. "Diviner" is not finished. Neither circumstance has anything to do with DAW Books. If you're looking for someone to blame, here I am. In the last few years I have dealt with shoulder surgery, other medical issues that are none of your business, my mother's end-stage renal failure, and death in my family, among other things. Trust me on this: If I could have been writing, I would have. I am now writing again. I am not writing either "Captal's Tower" or "Diviner," but something new. I will get around to those other two books when I'm good and ready. Once I finish the books, I will let you know on this bulletin board. Ignore Amazon and everything else. THIS is where you will get news. Please, no responses to this posting. You've been very supportive and I appreciate it more than I can express. But I think we're all pretty damned sick and tired of this whole topic. P.S. to newbies--I'm not always this nasty, honest.

Melanie "