"Before Albion is one, the hero feat must be performed and Silver Hand must reign."
The great king, Meldryn Mawr, is dead, and his kingdom lies in ruins. Treachery and brutality rule the land, and Albion is the scene of an epic struggle for the throne. The words of a prophetess foretell a coming king, but Lewis, as Albion's renowned champion, Llew, has a more immediate concern: retrieving the treacherous Siawn-Hy, who has eluded him in the doorway between worlds.
Forced to flee for their lives, Llew and the bard Tegid find refuge deep in Albion's heartland. There Llew seeks the true meaning behind the mysterious prophecy, the making of a true king and the revealing of a long-awaited champion: Silver Hand. Under Llew and Tegid's leadership, a wilderness citadel arises, and the miraculous reign of Silver Hand begins.
[b:The Silver Hand|73930|The Silver Hand (The Song of Albion, Book 2)|Stephen R. Lawhead|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170843498s/73930.jpg|1008415] is a continuation of a good story. It's told again in first person but from a different character's point of view which I found interesting. It is much darker and more violent than [b:The Paradise War|617086|The Paradise Snare (Star Wars The Han Solo Trilogy, Volume 1)|A.C. Crispin|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1176361848s/617086.jpg|2112698]. [a:Stephen R. Lawhead|28083|Stephen R. Lawhead|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1247321485p2/28083.jpg] has created appaling characters and he doesn't hold them back. They are allowed to be cruel and vile and it makes for a dark book.
And yet, there is goodness and respite and peace as well. [a:Stephen R. Lawhead|28083|Stephen R. Lawhead|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1247321485p2/28083.jpg] seems to be exploring farther ideas of sovereignty which is interesting in the world he's set, but as often as he touches on them, he doesn't dive deep enough into it for my tastes. My other complaint is that I never like when the reader is smarter than the characters. There were things that Tegid wrestles through and barely figures out that seemed readily apparent to me early on. And it's never fun to read pages of a character trying to sort out what you already know. I also realized that, while he brought back elements from the first book, this story did not go the direction I expected when I was still early in the first book.
