A pretty good sequel to The War with the Mein, with less connected storylines. Time hops forward nine years, which makes for a number of changes to the setting.
Daniel’s tale is the strangest; the Other Lands are much more fantastic than Acacia and the Known World. In many ways it didn’t work for me as well; it felt like everything was painted in super bright colors. There were some Asian influences that felt muddled– the culture’s differences were too great for the ink brushing and other subtle “eastern” flavorings to stand out– they were lost in the riot of body modification, soul transfer, and endless life. As you read along it works well and holds together, and the choice of Daniel to guide our viewpoint encourages us to understand how different the culture is.
Corinn continues largely the same, but with a twist– she’s a doting mother too. Her story is much like the last; intrigue and deciding what the necessary things are consumes her. She’s a conscientious queen with decisions that don’t appeal. The twist to sorcery (the risks explained by the Santoth) seem excessive, but I’ll wait to see what he does with it before I decide.
Mena is busy but not effective; her story is smaller than the other two– more personal. Other stories (like Aliver’s daughter) seem necessary, but didn’t really draw me in.
The ending was solid and really reemphasized who the characters are. I wonder how much of my reduced enthusiasm for this book is a result of the “mid-trilogy” drag, where the gains of the first book are shown to be only a fraction of what will be required in the end. The final book could be great– or this could become a series where I strongly recommend the first book.