Reviewed by sa090 on
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Continuing immediately from the previous book we are now in France and it's getting even more dangerous. I love this world, the mix of mythology, alchemy, famous real people and magic on top of all that make for one fantastic world to be in for a person like me who's insanely in love with these things. The book is very fast paced, the first book was told on the expense of two days, this one was almost the same (they did go to the third day for a little while but it was only one chapter so meh). But because there were some more resting periods if you will, Michael Scott got a little bit of a bigger chance to get to world building this verse that had to be sacrificed in the first book thanks to the pace.
It wasn't extensive mind you but I still learned more about the formula, magic, controlling said magic either through explanations or very awesome practical application and got hints that might explain a few things about the auras and their smells which was greatly appreciated. The plot of the book, despite the flare of an original aspect, is seemingly insanely basic (bad guy wants to resurrect evil beings of higher power and take back what they think is their rightful place while enslaving mankind and the opposing heroes who have to get stronger to stand up to the threat, see? Pretty basic) so something too deep in the lore and secrets could end up killing the tension IF it was given this early in the series so I do understand the logic behind this scarcity based move.
This world can be very huge because of the doors Michael Scott opened when he incorporated all of these elements together so I really enjoyed seeing the new characters in this book, regardless if they were real or just myths. Partly because I know of them previously and partly because it's very interesting to see what the background I know of will affect their actions in this book. It's not that big of an affect mind you but he does add small things to them that make relating them to their real world counterparts easier than expected which I loved very much and it leaves me insanely excited for the next books. The ones I didn't know provided me with a very nice topic to learn up on online so that to me is also a bonus.
What I didn't enjoy in the book, character wise, was Josh, just like in book one but for an entirely different reason this time. I do understand why he'll be whining when he sees his awakened twin and all that but constantly having to be reminded of his new found inferiority complex got tiring very very quickly and it's even worse when it actually became a noticeable/mentioned point in the book, granted it tie in to something else later on in the book but again, still tiring to read about. Other than that Scatty was awesome (wish she had more scenes) and especially Perenelle, my goodness the latter is always a treat to read about.
I do however worry that it could get too much at some point, many characters will logically come into play in this and I'm sure it could easily get way too confusing if not handled at a slower pace. A background in mythology and history would surely come in handy for this case and although I'm confident about my knowledge in some areas, I'm nowhere near being good enough to be called an expert. Extra readings for unknown names is very easy with something like Google around but consider it a small concern 🙃
Final rating: 4/5
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 31 July, 2017: Finished reading
- 31 July, 2017: Reviewed