Review: The war begins in earnest
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 23, 2013
Note: Bastial Explosion (The Rhythm of Rivalry: Book 3) is actually a book number four in the Bastial/Sartious series of novels by B.T. Narro. While reading theThe Sartious Mage (The Rhythm of Rivalry: Book 1.5)is not required to understand what's going on in this latest installment, the Explosion follows directly the events ofBastial Energy (The Rhythm of Rivalry: Book 1)and the timeline is almost the same as inBastial Steel (The Rhythm of Rivalry: Book 2). If you haven't read the previous books, I'd highly recommend to start with Bastial Energy and other books first, both to understand what is happening and to avoid any possible spoilers in the reviews.In Bastial Explosion, we see the return to the original format of the first book, Bastial Energy: it's told from the points of view of multiple characters. We find ourselves back in the Academy with Effie, Steffen, Reela, and their friends. On the Krepps' side of the story, we follow Zoke, who has sided with humans, and his sister Zeti, who stays loyal to the Krepps' cause of finding and eating all the Slugary they can find. While other characters are integral to the plot development, in my opinion, Effie and Zeti steal the show in this book. While Effie was the most interesting character in the first book, despite her being of secondary importance, and Zeti was written in somewhat subdued tones, with her brother outshining her, now they become much more developed and important to the plot. Through their transformation alone we can trace what is happening in the story and where it is headed--the all out war.The build up to the war is interesting to read because it happens rather naturally, gathering the steam slowly, until the end of the book, where we can see how the author handles description of a large battle. Which is rather well, BTW. There are some revelations, and questions answered in this book, and a rather spectacular titular explosion that takes place. However, as always, the main strength of Bastial/Sartious novels is character development: patient, detailed, and relevant to the story.It will be interesting to see what will happen in the next installment of the series, with Cleve finally being back into the fray and the promise of the upcoming hostilities finally delivered.Good read, recommended.