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Rating: 
Summary: Impossible to put down.
Review: Deitz has once again created a fantasy masterpiece. I find Deitz's ability to present villians as heroes when it is neccesary quite stunning. Also the rationale behind each characters motives draw the reader ever further and further into this novel. I would recommend this series to any serious fantasy reader.
Rating:
Summary: Impossible to put down.
Review: Deitz has once again created a fantasy masterpiece. I find Deitz's ability to present villians as heroes when it is neccesary quite stunning. Also the rationale behind each characters motives draw the reader ever further and further into this novel. I would recommend this series to any serious fantasy reader.
Rating: 
Summary: gripping fantasy!
Review: I really enjoyed this sequel to Bloodwinter.Dietz returns us to his fantasy world of conflict and magic as forces both good and evil vie possession of the magical gems. Ixia's brutal king Barrax invades Eron and sinister priest clans plots treason.Dietz's atmospheric writing style is evident in describing use of this magical stones and some gripping battle scenes.Now bring on book 3!
Rating:
Summary: gripping fantasy!
Review: I really enjoyed this sequel to Bloodwinter.Dietz returns us to his fantasy world of conflict and magic as forces both good and evil vie possession of the magical gems. Ixia's brutal king Barrax invades Eron and sinister priest clans plots treason.Dietz's atmospheric writing style is evident in describing use of this magical stones and some gripping battle scenes.Now bring on book 3!
Rating:
Summary: Springwar
Review: There's a problem with many fantasy sequels, which is that they seem to be slapped together in a way that doesn't really make any sense, as if the author is just trying to ride the first book's success to get a few more dollars. The good thing about "Springwar" is that it doesn't feel like that. Tom Deitz clearly planned this entire series of books from the beginning, and they all fit together as a coherent story, rather than an episodic group of events where new people and concepts just spring up out of the ground. In this book, Barrax begins his invasion of Eron from the south, while Avall rushes to bring King Gynn the news about the gem. We also see more of Strynn, Rann, Rrath, Eddyn and all the other characters from "Bloodwinter" as they get drawn into the growing battle between the two nations.All of Deitz's strengths that were present in the first book appear here again. He has some very nice character arcs in place here, and it's good to see a fantasy author who actually thinks about how his heroes and villains would be affected by the events that they take part in. The dialogue is generally well-written, although occasionally a little bit soap operaish. I also can't fault this author's pacing. Unlike certain other fantasy authors (*cough cough Robert Jordan*), all of the books in Deitz's series contain a great deal of action and plot advancement. The central conflict does actually get resolved by the end of the book, and several important things do actually happen to all of the main characters. A final note about magic in "Springwar". One of the things that I liked about the first book was that only very minor supernatural elements were present; I think that many of the best modern fantasy authors are realizing that my including fewer mythical elements, they can focus more on the human beings at the heart of the story. In this volume, however, the presence of magical power increases quite a bit. I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I think that the way the character respond to the discovery of their magical abilities is very realistic. On the other hand, the one might view the power of the gems as a contrived plot device that allows them to solve all their problems without real effort, thus rendering the series less realistic than authors such as George R. R. Martin or Robin Hobb. But despite that fact, I still highly recommend these books as one of the few intelligent and mature series in the genre.
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