Three Californians join Duke Aletto and his sister, Lialla, as they struggle to restore the Duke to his rightful throne, which has been usurped by Jadek, the ruler of Rhadaz
Ru Emerson was born on December 15th, 1944 in Montana. She and her husband, Doug, live in Oregon with their only child, a silver mackerel tabby cat named Roberta. She likes to lift weights, run, bike, skate in-line, ski, play basketball, tennis, racquetball, garden, play guitar, scuba dive, and fly stunt kites. Her favorite reading material includes Megan Lindholm, science fiction by Larry Niven, murder mysteries by Patricia Cornwell, plus any other good historical non-fiction.
The second book in "Night Threads" series, and second in the trilogy.
We get to know more about the world, both the magics of the world as well as comunities. The cast gets bigger, as they arrive in towns and cities, and we get much more action here than we got in the previous book.
Actual character development amid travelling for assistance. The group is gelling, no TSTL moments and happily the Birdy issue was cleared quicker and neater than I feared.
Fantasy magic parallel world quest For the first few years this was billed as a trilogy. Interesting to see the many cultural references that would be lost on modern readers. Anyway, middle books in trilogies were usually remarked as being the weakest part of the story, especially in a quest. The desert was a bit of a grind, but many things happened in this novel -- things that will bear fruit in book 3. It's a slower paced series, but it's also dense with details and how the characters interact. Well worth the read.
About this digital book, however, there is still the missing map, and in the last chapter there were many capitalization errors (more than a dozen). Do large print houses not care? Do they not even review the finished product? Emerson wrote over twenty novels, and this ebook cost more than the usual price, but still, we don't even get the original covers? At the least, I hope the author gets a decent share of the mark-up.
Loved this. Lost this trilogy years ago & only just found it in Amazon. I binged reading the trilogy again. I'd forgotten how engaging the characters are & how well Ru Emerson writes. The pace of the books is good & the magic is original & different. Well worth reading.
Having left Sikkre with new friends and enemies, Aletto and his traveling companions press on to a new city. But the present danger has forced them off the road and through the countryside, in the hope that avoiding the easy way will also avoid trouble.
It's hard to write a description of this book: once again, the majority of the plot is in the relationships between the characters. Getting from Point A to Point B turns out to be a secondary concern. That said, this is an excellent build on The Calling of the Three. Jennifer, Robyn, and Chris are all easing into their own niche in this new world; Aletto and Lialla are opening up to the world as well. Their friendships (and a growing romance) are as rocky as ever, but that's part of what makes the story rewarding.
Once again the only downside for me was feeling like this was just another leg in the journey. It hooks in nicely with the first book, advancing Aletto's mission an inch at a time, but it does feel like another episode. Not much gets resolved, though at the end everyone is more hopeful what they want isn't impossible.
Overall it's a solid followup to the first book, with a lot of tension, action, adventure, and drama. I rate this book Neutral.