Rating: 
Summary: And the followup makes the grade
Review: This series is fantastic. Stackpole's characters are, as always, human (even those that aren't biologically). This book informs readers of what happened after DGW, specifically related to Crow and to Leigh Norrington. Will's character shift is welcome; Alexia becomes a character with more depth and her love interest (while not surprising) is sincere. Kerrigan.... well let's just say that Stackpole does a masterful job of showing his power and naivete all in the same scenes. Again, very consistent character work.*spoilers below*
As has been noted, there are very few all out melee battles in this book. The main characters have plausible political and social problems as well as battle strategies to devise. The hit and fade attacks by Resolute, Crow, and Will are nicely done as added action scenes and further story development. Stackpole's plotline flows naturally and logically from point to point; nothing in this novel seems contrived or forced; the end of the book is well thought out, although there's an easy clause out of Will's death. I'm torn between wanting Stackpole to bring such an intereseting character back with said clause or leave him dead because its use might cheapen the plot. But besides that, it's nice to know that Rym Ramoch and Bok are more than they seem. This book is consistenly engaging (to be read: will keep you up late to finish it) and is highly recommended. But read Dark Glory War and Fortress Draconis first so you understand what you're reading.
Rating:
Summary: And the followup makes the grade
Review: This series is fantastic. Stackpole's characters are, as always, human (even those that aren't biologically). This book informs readers of what happened after DGW, specifically related to Crow and to Leigh Norrington. Will's character shift is welcome; Alexia becomes a character with more depth and her love interest (while not surprising) is sincere. Kerrigan.... well let's just say that Stackpole does a masterful job of showing his power and naivete all in the same scenes. Again, very consistent character work. *spoilers below*
As has been noted, there are very few all out melee battles in this book. The main characters have plausible political and social problems as well as battle strategies to devise. The hit and fade attacks by Resolute, Crow, and Will are nicely done as added action scenes and further story development. Stackpole's plotline flows naturally and logically from point to point; nothing in this novel seems contrived or forced; the end of the book is well thought out, although there's an easy clause out of Will's death. I'm torn between wanting Stackpole to bring such an intereseting character back with said clause or leave him dead because its use might cheapen the plot. But besides that, it's nice to know that Rym Ramoch and Bok are more than they seem. This book is consistenly engaging (to be read: will keep you up late to finish it) and is highly recommended. But read Dark Glory War and Fortress Draconis first so you understand what you're reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Good stuff
Review: To that Mike guy and his one star rating: what? Did you even finish the book? The ending is quite interesting, to say the least. While i do agree Stackpole's style can be somewhat dry at times, he does slowly input detail that brings the world, and most importantly the plot to life. There are a good handful of suprises in the book to keep it lively. His battle descriptions are very interesting from a military standpoint but lack much of the emotion that would draw me deeper into them. Stackpole presents the battle tactics in a clean, logical way that makes it easy to draw parrallels to modern warfare. For the most part it is a step above the usual fantasy series released these days and a worthy read. Definitely better than Fortress, and almost as good as Dark Glory War.
Rating:
Summary: Good stuff
Review: To that Mike guy and his one star rating: what? Did you even finish the book? The ending is quite interesting, to say the least. While i do agree Stackpole's style can be somewhat dry at times, he does slowly input detail that brings the world, and most importantly the plot to life. There are a good handful of suprises in the book to keep it lively. His battle descriptions are very interesting from a military standpoint but lack much of the emotion that would draw me deeper into them. Stackpole presents the battle tactics in a clean, logical way that makes it easy to draw parrallels to modern warfare. For the most part it is a step above the usual fantasy series released these days and a worthy read. Definitely better than Fortress, and almost as good as Dark Glory War.
Rating:
Summary: Great middle book
Review: What a great 2nd book in a series. Puts many new facets of the story into play and solves a few questions. A bit choppy in the writing style as it switches main characters in each chapter and you have to read through two or three chapters to get back to the story line you were interested in. But that is mostly how Stackpole writes. If you liked his style before it will not bother you too much.
Rating:
Summary: Stackpole shocks yet again...
Review: What an incredilble book! The action doesn't pick up until after the first 1/3rd, however, the ending is such a shocker! (Yes, many of you out there will say it's just a ploy to get you to buy the [possibly]last book.) If you've read the previous two books, you'll be totally upset at the ending. I don't want to give anything away... I know it's not much of a review, but too much info would spoil it...
Rating: 
Summary: Is it just me, or is that dragon looking a bit annoyed
Review: When Dragons Rage is a very enjoyably read, it does suffer from a few minor problems that take it out of the realm of "great" and into "good but flawed." Unfortunately, its biggest flaw is almost unforgivable: it's dreadfully boring at times. And that's not like Stackpole. It suffers from an acute case of middle-book syndrome. It seems at times that the characters, introduced and developed in the first book, just move around the board in preparation for their final use in the last book of the series. They go through some more development in this one, and they are for the most part interesting. But I can't help feeling that this is a place-holder book rather than a continuation. Even Stackpole seems to feel that way, as it lacks in large part his characteristic military action. Oh, don't get me wrong. It is there, and when it is, Stackpole excels as he usually does. However, Stackpole goes on for long passages about things that aren't really that interesting. He gives great gory detail about the magic system in this world, telling us the whys and wherefores of many of Kerrigan's spells as he works out exactly what his abilities are. The spell descriptions get tedious after a while, and he spends pages on them. Dullness is not a good thing when we're talking about an action book. The characters are usually just as interesting as the first book, and Kerrigan actually gets less annoying (which I didn't think was possible). In fact, when Stackpole isn't boring us with the explanation of how magic works, Kerrigan is actually a pretty interesting character as he comes under a new tutor who isn't all that he seems. The revelation about this tutor actually comes as a shock. Will continues his fine progress on the road to being a good man. He's still naïve at times, but he's growing into a strong young man and it's not as unlikely as it was before that he would be the man to finally beat Chytrine. Princess Alexia and Crow also remain interesting characters, but there are aspects that I found a little suspect, or at least unsupported and coming out of nowhere. As part of a plan to help Crow get out of his mess, Alexia offers to marry him in order to make him a non-citizen of the Southlands and thus make him harder to try as a criminal. But they develop a love for each other that makes them wish for the end of all this conflict so they can get on with their lives. While I understand how a love can grow when you're in constant proximity to another person, there is no development of this other than a scene where Alexia thinks back to the their time together and realizes that she wants his touch. We don't see any of this time, unfortunately. It's all in Alexia's thoughts. It wasn't a surprise that this happened, but it would have been nice to see some of it before Stackpole just presents it to us. Even Chytrine is characterized in this book. Not only that, but Stackpole gives her another dimension which makes her less a caricature. Unfortunately, that other dimension is given by interacting with a "daughter" that she has taken earlier from the South. The reason this is unfortunate is because Isaura is a very dull character. She must have been introduced to set up her role in the third book. I can't think of any other reason why Stackpole would include her. She does do a couple of important things, but overall she's useless. She's yet another innocent character who goes on and on about how innocent they are. She has never seen the Southlands before, so Chytrine sends her on one of the expeditions to the South. She observes, she does some things in the main city that don't really have much of an explanation, and then she goes home. Innocent does not have to mean boring, but unfortunately Stackpole doesn't seem to realize that. Kerrigan suffered from this in the first book. There seems to be a quota of boring innocent characters in this series, and when one moves beyond it, another one must take its place. The plot of the book is pretty good overall, though as I said, there are long passages of tedium. Crow's problem stretches on for the first 100 pages or so, and not all of them are needed. There are long chapters of Kerrigan trying to work out spells. Some of the other character exposition is interesting, though. The ending, however, is magnificent and really does leave you longing for the last book so you can see how it ends. We finally get to see some more information about the dragons in the world (instead of being a small plot device) and some startling events happen that take your breath away if you've been following these characters. Most of the action takes place in the last half of the book (in fact, at times Adrogans' invasion seems like an attempt to get some action in the first part of the book, though I know his story is more important than that). There are still plenty of heads flying and limbs being chopped off, but there is much less than previous books. It's a shame, because Stackpole is a wonderful action writer. He seems to be working on his characters, though, and I have to admit that he does a much better job overall with them. While this is not a wonderful book, it does its work well. Try to get through the boring parts for the meat at the end. There are some things at the beginning to hold your interest as well, so take heart. And get ready for a rollicking conclusion. I'm sure it's coming. Don't you dare disappoint me, Michael. David Roy
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