The Shadow at the Gate (The Tormay Trilogy #2) [Formato Kindle]

This is really good, how am I the first review?

Shadow picks up where The Hawk And His Boy leaves off, and if anything gets better. No middle volume slump here. Several significant confrontations with the Dark along with identities and allegiances uncovered, both expected and unexpected, keep the story moving along at a good pace. The prose standard continues to be high. And where some authors outsmart themselves with "clever" twists that make you roll your eyes and wonder what they could possibly have been thinking, the twists here work well, keeping the story fresh, and yet having that feeling of inevitability one gets from a story proceeding exactly as it must.

As with most longer fantasy the story follows multiple characters or groups. Often with that type of plot I get annoyed with one or more threads and plod through them waiting to get back to party X with the characters I like, but that doesn't happen here as all characters are either sufficiently appealing in their own right or up to no good in such a way that I genuinely wanted to know what they are doing.

A lot of focus in first half or so of this volume seems to be on characters other than Jute, arguably the main character in volume one, though it does drop in on him occasionally at first and more often as the story progresses. A number of characters who had lesser roles in Hawk And His Boy get to spend a lot more time on stage and come into their own in this volume. Owain Gawinn and Levoreth happily get a lot of stage time here.

Can't wait for the final volume, which will immediately jump to the head of my queue when it's available. If you like classic Good vs Evil save the world fantasy, give this series a try.

I wish I could give it 4.5 stars. The second installment is longer and has a lot more to sink one's teeth into. There are several climax points, including one that could have been the climax the first book needed and a couple which occur in parallel. The writing style is well done, the suspense is just right, the fantasy elements are all there - with a twist or three. There are a few sections of info dumps which could have been more spread out, but they're not too dry or obstructing.

Overall, an awesome book and I look forward to finishing out the trilogy!

Ok.... clearly this should be a two book series. I can not say that definitively, because I do not intend to read the last book.

Why do you ask?

Because life is too short for cheap wine, bad food and marginal books.

Things done well:
- The knife has a nice surprising background.
- A face is given to the evil.
- And..... I'm sorry, I have nothing else.

Unfortunately-
- The bird is a deeper character than Jute.
- A whole tower of wizards are decimated in 2 secs... Mice? Cats?
- The scholars are just a little too bumbling.
- The plot is still pretty slow... but presumably everything will be OK once they reach a some city (Harlach?).
- The new "evil villain" is entirely cookie-cutter.

So.... to continue my earlier analogy --> you can kick back with a rice cake and tofu salad, crack open a non-alcoholic beer and read this series.... but I don't think you will be satisfied on any level.