A really good follow up to Green Rider.

The overarching plot for the series becomes clearer in this instalment. It's written, as Green Rider was, in third-person omniscient, which makes it feel very broad-sweeping and grand in scale. I like the way we sort of zoom in like a telephoto lens on different characters and scenes. I actually lost count of the number of different character POV's I experienced along the way, although of course the main character, Karigan, has the majority of the page time. At one point it was written from the point of view of a swirly black tendril of smoke that had sentience. Bizarre but fabulous.

It's a long book and too much happens to summarise in a review, but suffice to say I was just as entertained by it as I was first time around with Green Rider, and I was more than thrilled by a couple of developments, and completely dismayed by others. The magic, politics and fascinating characters make this an engrossing and absorbing read. One I will probably re-read at some point in the future. And the addition of the time travel aspect proved an excellent way to fill in gaps in the world's history of important events that affect the current situation with the Wall and Blackveil forest.

“She was unfettered and free, a wild spirit he could not capture, tame, or confine, but one he wished would come to him, as a deer is tempted by a handful of oats.” 

I really would love to go straight onto the next book but as there are only two left in the series currently, and with the prospect of 3 years before the next book comes out ahead of me, I think I'll hold off for a while and read them back-to-back in a few years. I understand you can't rush or force creativity, but I really wish the gaps between these books weren't so enormous. It's a longer than average book at 600+ pages, but if authors like Kim Harrison can manage a 400+ page book every 12 months, plus anthologies, plus a separate YA series, then 4 years is just dilly dallying no matter how you look at it.

4 Stars! ★★★★