| $@%&! level: High “Bedroom” level: Low (if any) Violence level: High (as you'd expect if you've read the first book) Back Cover: “Bahzell Bahnakson of the Horse Stealer hradani never wanted to be a champion of the War God. Unfortunately, the War God had insisted. Even more unfortunately, Bahzell's own sense of responsibility hadn't let him say 'No.' Which was how he found himself in the Empire of the Axe, where even people who didn't actively hate Bahzell's kind regarded them with suspicion and fear. Of course, that was only the start of his problems. Next, there was the Order of Tomanak, many of whom were horrified by the notion that their deity had chosen a hradani as a champion...and intended to do something about it. And assuming he survived that, he had to go home—across three hundred leagues of bitter winter snow—to face a Dark God who threatened to destroy all hradani. Throw in the odd demon and brigand ambush, and add a powerful neighboring kingdom with no intention of letting Bahzell (or anyone else) save his people, and you have the makings of a really bad day. But one thing Bahzell has learned: a champion of Tomanak does what needs doing. And the people in his way had better move.” |
You can tell this is a sequel. It's trying to follow the pattern of the first book—it has the same travel-based structure, with various violent (and some friendly) encounters interspersed to keep things interesting. But where the first book had an overarching story (Bahzell's reluctant decision to become a Champion of Tomanak), this one really is just getting from the beginning to the end, where it gets really exciting again. Still an excellent read, you understand, but not quite as tied together as the first one was. What you get instead is a stronger and deeper understanding of the world that Bahzell lives in, and especially how the magic works. If you're going to do lengthy exposition, it's definitely a good idea to get a thousand-year-old wizard to do it, while riding along at an easy walk. For one thing, it's very believable that people would want to ask him questions and that he'd be willing and able to give comprehensive answers. And at least that way it doesn't stop the action in an exciting part in order to explain everything, the way David Weber does in some other books I could name. (Yes, I'm never going to give that one up.)