Review

Let me try to explain, carefully so I do not give anything away, why I feel the three star ratings are off the mark. In book one, Axis and Faraday are young, naive, and more in love with the idea of each other then the reality. Honestly, neither knows a lot about the other. Book 2, Axis has gone through many changes, essentially he is not the same young battleaxe of book one. Everything he was raised to believe has been proven a lie. Combine that with the corrupting influence of great power, the driving force of the prophecy plus the horrors of war and Axis develops into a different person, and not all the changes are positive. I thought it was well done.

There are many revelations in this book. In some cases, mysteries are solved, in other cases they deepen and some of the answers will create new questions. Things happen that you will see coming, others will catch you completely off guard. Combine that with the fact that this is a complicated story with a multitude of characters to keep track of, and you end up with a real page-turner. I literally flew through this book.

Ever read a book where you promise yourself you will only read one more chapter, then an hour later you look at the clock and say impolite things you are glad only your cat heard? I had several 3am mornings where I forced myself to put down the book and go to bed. I may not have liked the various characters as much as I did in book one, but I still wanted to know how things were going to turn out for them. Even when I knew how an event was going to end up, I still wanted to know what path would be taken to get there and who would play what part.

The characters feel real to me. They make mistakes, they get over confident, they hurt other people unintentionally, they exhibit poor judgment, and the good ones kick themselves afterwards. I also like complicated stories with multiple characters, various races, different systems of magic, unique cultures and more then one religion. Add to that an author who manages to weave all of these elements into something that works and I am in love. There is one more thing I love about this story; it has antagonists I understand plus mysterious “others” that I do not. Bournheld’s motives and beliefs, considering his upbringing, I completely understood. Gorgael has some motives that I understand, regardless of the fact that he was born “evil” and is not completely sane. There are also mysterious “others” pulling strings in the background and I desperately want to know what their game is. I got some of my answers here but for the rest I must move on to book three. I am looking forward to it.