Overall Rating: Recommended (How I Rate Books)
Personal Rating: Excellent follow up to an excellent book 1
Genres: Flintlock Fantasy, Fantasy, High Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Lightbringer
Similar books:
Previous books by the author/in the series I’ve reviewed:
Spoilers below. You’ve been warned!
I liked this book as much as, if not more than book 1 in the series. Mr. Weeks successfully wrote a compelling story about politics, war and human suffering.
Plot: This book’s strongest feature. I liked the story as told by the author. The Color Prince is attacking the Satrapies of the Chromaria, forcing them to fall in line with his brutal regime. Opposed against him are the majority of the heroes. I’m not going to go into details because ‘spoilers,’ but I liked the book as written.
Pacing: I never got bored… but this book was long. Like *really* long. I wish the author trimmed some of the fat a little. I feel as though the whole ‘Nine Kings’ plotline could have been cut for the sake of making a tighter, more condensed story. (I did like the plotline, though.)
Characterization: Good-to-Great. I liked everyone. Pretty much all the protagonists had a satisfying character arcs. I particularly liked Liz’s ‘fall from grace’ character arc.
Concept and Execution: I don’t think this book was a really high-concept novel. This is more of a classic Epic Fantasy where the plot dictates events. Same goes for themes. This book is really more of the same ‘war and politics in magic light land’ from book 1, but with more of a ‘things are quickly spiraling out of control’ sort of vibe going on. I’ll give it this: this tone was very consistent with book 1.
Net total, I liked this book as much as book 1 in the series if not liking it more because get to see more of these compelling characters. I highly recommend you check out the first book in the series because that was one of the best books I read last year, and I can say that this book is of similar if not superior quality to that book.
John Mendez- Book Reviews and More 