Rating: 4 out of 5
Overall, this is a decent continuation of the series! I like Che’s adventures in Solarno quite a bit more than Achaeos’ adventures, but that’s mostly personal preference. The book is generally well balanced between the two sides, so getting through the Skater-kinden adventures that Achaeos & Co. were indulging in was mostly rewarded with the better side of the coin in Solarno.
Somehow the magicking of Achaeos feels slightly off. Why are we even looking for this box? We know someone wants it, but is that reason enough for everyone else to want it themselves? The box doesn’t quite work as well as a plot element because of this, and because of the personality that the author is ascribing to it. Yet, our team searches for it, looking very carefully into each and every suspicious activity except the one that actually proves to be significant. Not necessarily out of character for Tynisa, but a very weak thread to balance this entire story on.
The suborning of Solarno—is this a poor way of translating Salerno into a fictional setting?—is a much more eventful chapter, possibly because we are dealing with a number of factions with their own goals and objectives. This makes it into a much more thrilling situation to be reading about. In addition, the combat that we read about here, mostly aerial combat, seems to have been slightly more to the author’s liking, as we experience a lot more colour in his descriptions of it.
Without a perfectly clear reflection of my prior thoughts on this book, I would like to say I enjoyed a part of it slightly more than the last time (Solarno) and the rest slightly less. Not sure how accurate that really is though.
Where does the story lead from here? I’m keen to carry on, especially as a book I really enjoyed last time through the series is slightly ahead of me…
