Rating: 
Summary: Great book with just enough to make you come back for more
Review: This books is awesome. He has exceptional characterisation and great world building. I found myself drawn into the intriquies of both tobyn ser and lon ser. He makes the characters real and they pop out of the pages embracing the whole world giving it color and life. I loved reading every word of it. Quest fantasies usually follow a couple of themes and this one is no different but what makes it uniquie is how the heros accomplish what they want to accomplish and the different sub plots that add to the dynamic and colorfull tapestry of this world.
Rating: 
Summary: Thoroughly enjoyable
Review: This second book in the Tobyn-ser chronicles series was very difficult for me to put down. I forsook quite a bit of sleep in order to finish it quickly, and I can't say that about very many fantasy genre books that I've read lately. The historical setting that the novel takes place is very interesting, but certainly not new, i.e., a high-tech society existing in the same world as a society steeped in magic. There certainly were enough plot twists to keep me coming back. What I really enjoyed was the character interaction and politics of the magicians in the Order. I came to really care about what happened to the main characters, and the action was very fast-paced. I also got a very strong sense of the history and culture of the two lands that the book takes place in. Unlike quite a few fantasy books, it is easy to picture what the author is trying to say as opposed to some other books I'm struggling with that have long and run-on sentences. In other words, it was easy to enjoy just reading both this one and the first one, and not having to work hard just to understand it. The author took a character, Orris, who seemed pretty arrogant and distasteful in the first book and matured him and gave the reader a whole new way of looking at him. The only thing that bothers me about the plot is, if the technolgical society is so advanced and would certainly explore and fly over the oceans, why wouldn't the pristine, unspoiled, resource-rich Tobyn-Ser come to its attention far sooner than this? I'm not sure that this nagging question is answered adequately, but it may just be me. Certainly doesn't spoil the book, nor keeping me from recommending it wholeheartedly.
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