Mildly disappointed by this sequel to Master of Sorrows. Probably won’t be continuing with the series.
The author clearly has an excellent imagination, and there’s good stuff in here. People who like a book for good worldbuilding or good Sanderson-esque magic systems will find a lot to like here. In fact, though I don’t plan to continue the series, if I ever hear of Justin Call making a tabletop RPG I’ll jump on that in a hot minute.
Much of this book felt like a D&D-type role playing game campaign. This isn’t in and of itself a bad thing, but it’s something that needs to be handled carefully in a novel. There was too much time spent on what would be (in an actual RPG) the mechanics of the game. Lots of talk about artifacts, magical gear, how magic works. Mysterious strangers are met in taverns, parties are assembled, and dungeons are crawled. There’s a lot that is exciting and well-written.
But I found the overall story didn’t really hold together that well. There were too many disparate elements, and too many things that didn’t seem to tie into (any of) the plot(s). Character development was uneven, and there were some character turns that I did not think made sense at all.
Still, there’s a degree of a comfort read in this kind of old-school-inspired sword & sorcery. And full credit to the author on the gender balance, which was my chief complaint about book 1 (no women characters with any real agency).