Academy is under attack,
Ceril Bain is on the run, only a day after waking up from a coma and learning that his arm and leg have been ripped off.
With terrorists killing everyone around them, Cerils team barely escape with their lives, They go to the only place they think they can get some answersCerils grandfathers house,
While there, an energy storm forms in the garden where Ceril found his Flameblade over six years ago, Instead of being torn apart by the storm, however, Ceril and his team are transported back to Jaronya, the toxic Instance that almost killed them all three months before.
This time around, though, Ceril and the others are helped by a friendly angel named Watcher, Despite this advantage, they are kidnapped and imprisoned by creatures known as Wardens and come face to face with a sentient city named Helia.
All the while, Cerils grandfathernow using his real name of Damien Vennaris having quite an adventure of his own, After having his home invaded and his book of secrets stolen, he had gone to Ennds Academy to find some answers, While there, he discovered the new headmaster was in league with a man who has stolen his former identity: that of a legendary demigod known as the Untouchable.
As he continues on his quest for answers, Damien discovers just how much he has changed over the years, Once a ruthless demigod with the power to create universes, he has spent the past five hundred years learning how to be an ordinary man.
Damien Vennar now must decide who he wants to be: the allpowerful Untouchable of legend or the kindhearted and softspoken Gramps of Cerils childhood.
Either way, Damien and Cerils lives will never be the same again, Definitely a step up from Book One, Book Two moves at a much faster pace, There are lots of good action scenes particularly one involving a dragon, more awesome Damien scenes, and some interesting character development, There are also a few cyberpunk motifs in this book, in addition to the usual fantasy/scifi tropes,
I wasn't a fan of the youthinschool stuff in Book One, which is almost completely absent from Book Two, A few things in this book felt repetitive from Book One, but the story moves at such a fast pace that it isn't a huge issue.
Fans of the first book will be enormously pleased, and Book Two should win over anyone who was disappointed with Book One, This strange story continues. I say strange because its not my regular kind of science fiction military, Its about a group of kids, now grown up, who went to a school to learn to become Charons or Technomages, Its all about nanites. If you dont know what those are, then youre really not into science fiction, Nanites are the coming future, They are simple put, very, very, very tiny machines that work together to get amazing things done, The Charons know how to control nanites and their bodies are full of them,
Ceril, our min character, is a young man that has been through a lot, Its a wonder hes still alive, but hes very much alive and soon out of his hospital bed, He has been in a coma for about three months recovering from his bout with the High Priestess in Jaronya, He lost an arm and part of a leg or both legs, Im a little confused on that, but hes recovered, How in the heck do you recover from something like that
Anyway, his recovery was made possible by his “doctors” who filled his body with nanites.
Instead of blood, he has nanites running through his veins and now he can “conjure” up a new arm and legs which will work perfectly in place of those that are gone.
Yeah, I know. Pretty convenient, but this is science fiction,
Anyway, Ceril and his friends, Saryn, Chuckie, and Harlo, have decided they need to find out who this Untouchable person is whos destroying all the Charons and their schools.
To do this, they have to go back to Ternia where Ceril and his Gramps lived and search for clues, This leads them back to a familiar place, Jaronya,
As you read in the first book, “Birthright”, Gramps isnt the nice lovable guy we all thought he was, He seems to be pretty crazy to me, Ceril knows theres some kind of connection between the Untouchable and his Gramps, but he just doesnt want to believe it, He has to prove they are not the same person, He hopes to do that in Jaronya, Jaronya is a very strange place, It was created by Gramps and some of his creations are not only weird but dangerous, Ceril and his friends find out their journey is going to cost them dearly two in particular,
I liked the writing once you get past all the bloody fights, Sword fighting can never be clean, and the author certainly makes it graphically clear that its not, Theres also a lot of just killing for no good reason, Why kill a receptionist whos just sitting at her desk Someone walks out of a room that Gramps was walking into and he crushes their head.
If Gramps is a god, then I certainly wouldnt want to be around him, And what about Ceril Is he the same as Gramps since they are family, or are they Much better than the first book although perhaps just because I was more invested at this point.
The mythology came together a lot better, and the fight scenes just got progressively cooler, Looking forward to the last one, This book is amazing. The story is creative, philosophical, and profound, Numerous times I had to stop and copy down a quote from this book because it just jumped out at me and touched my soul.
The ending oh my gosh. I wont spoil anything, but holy cow that was something I did not expect,
This book is worth the read, Trust me. DISCLAIMER: I know the author, I payed for the book, and never talked to him about his work, but I do know him,
After the events of Birthright, Ceril finds himself the weakest he's ever been, He wakes up in the medical wing of Eend with his friends, still suffering from the physical and mental trauma of his trip to Jeraqua.
His recovery is cut short as The Untouchable attacks, sending the little group on another journey, This time the journey is the self motivated one, Ceril and his crew go on a quest to figure out how the Untouchable is related to Gramps.
This is the second book in a series, and it's all the better for it, Less ambitious in scope, coming second allows a more focused story, With all the characters and stakes established, we just get to go on a rollercoaster ride, There's very few growing pains or exposition dumps, just a fairly straight forward story that pushes what we already know,
I enjoyed this book, The previous book felt stilted and, though there are moments of awkwardness, I really think this one was fairly graceful in it's story telling.
There's still some work to be done to make the action sequences flow better and made clearer I understand these fights are brawls and have no grace, but it's an effort to follow which is kind of unforgivable, but the dramatic plots worked for me.
There are very few additional characters in the book, and they stay fairly consistent, Ceril and Gramps are the only ones that really change, and they have reasons for their change, I particularly enjoyed the side characters again, though their increase in screen time did lower their impact on my impression, They are utilized fairly well, though I'm keeping my eye on Chuckie who seems to be on a path to onedimensional mania,
In the last book I praised the world and it's history, hoping that I would see more of it, We do. But the focus stays squarely on the adventures of Ceril and Gramps, There are some new places explored and some interesting things added, but they are put away as soon as they are done being played with.
The book has a much smaller scale, It's natural to have a less grandiose feeling,
If you liked the characters in the previous book, then you should read this one, Their journey is continued in a tighter story and I feel it's all the better for it, There are moments that feel awkward and the action sequences need more efficient choreography, but I think this book really moved the plot and kept things interesting.
I'm in it till the end, .