This was a story that I just discovered about a month ago, and the first book won the very first Golden Beard Award. With that being said, I did not want to wait for the physical book to arrive from Amazon, so I ordered the ebook. I am still on the fence about reading ebooks, but I figured this would be the title to test it out with. So how does the second installment hold up in comparison? Let's find out.
The book takes place five years later but does a good job of getting you up to speed. We also have my favorite character Tulasiro the narwhal (I need to draw a pic before I review book 3!) It is going to be hard to go over some of the story and plot lines without spoiling the book, so I will try not to spoil anything major.
We learn that Kealin has not found his sister since the ending of book one. So, he has been searching for her for the past five years. He gets some clues that usually lead to him traveling around to distant lands and getting into some perilous situations! Unfortunate for me, Kealin has to travel south on his journey and the waters are too warm for Tulasiro, so they part as Kealin advises her to search out the sea god to grant her the ability to traverse in warmer waters (She better!).
On his new journey he meets up with two brothers, Orolo and Brethor (No spoilers on how he meets up with these crazy guys). Our new trio sets sail with a local sailor who pretty much sells them out. This leads to a pretty epic battle that made me imagine Gladiator or Planet Hulk as I was reading this chapter. JT Williams does a great job describing duels or full out battles. In fact, I can read a whole book of non stop battles if he wrote one. I know it sounds crazy but his detail makes it easy to picture the fight scenes in your head as it plays out.
Now this will be a spoiler of sorts, but not in great detail. Williams does something else very well. He introduces characters that you start to like then HE KILLS THEM!!! It is maddening, but it does the job of making you hate the villains and hoping they get their comeuppance. Just as Kealin seems to be out of danger, or on the right track to finding his sister a monkey-wrench always gets thrown in his face. This guy just can't catch a break!
As the rest of the book moves along, it makes me think of an RPG or playing D&D. The pacing is great, the action is great, and the characters are great. Although I feel that the characters were stronger in the first book. As I was reading the book I was thinking that Vals and Kealin's siblings from book one had me more invested in them. Not to take anything from Ororlo or Brethor, but I just did not really care as much for them.
The last three chapters of the book were really strong, however I almost guessed a portion of the ending. I do not want to spoil this at all, but I will say I was not as shocked as I thought I would be. But with that said, it did not ruin or lessen it for me at all.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in fantasy, RPG's, and D&D. Now on to the score. I really enjoyed this book and was having a hard time deciding on the score. I wanted to give it a 5 then thought maybe a 4.5 since I was not as connected to the supporting characters. I was conflicted on how to score it, so I read over the last few chapters to see if I would feel any different about the ending, but I felt pretty much the same. So since I felt the stronger connection to Kealin's siblings, Tulasiro, and Vanku (That guy still creeps me out!) from the first book I had to give the book a 4.5.
You can also head on over to his personal blog site and sign up for his mailing list for a free short story. You can also get his Twitter and Facebook links there as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment