Review: A very fine tale
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 21, 2011
I very much enjoyed this sequel to The Hawk and his Boy.  Christopher Bunn has a fine grasp of poetical imagery while using 'ordinary' words, making his tale accessible to many ages and keeping the reader immersed in his world.I do have a few minor 'complaints' or 'criticisms' which caused me to withhold my hard-won 5th star.  I was a bit disappointed that the viewpoint pulled back somewhat from the rotating intense 3rd person subjective established in the first book; I had come to appreciate it and didn't get quite enough of the interior life of the characters and their subjective development through events (especially Ronan). The somewhat more objective and general viewpoint of some chapters may have been necessary to tell the story, however ... it's hard to say.Plot development, as before, is a good blend of current events and historical revelations.  I have to admit to wishing for a bit more tension and emotional 'gripping' in the tragedies that occur (I think I should have shed a tear or two or suffered dread rather than feeling disappointment that such a development was necessary to the story). On the other hand, the twists and revelations were quite well handled.As this book is about twice as long as the first and we haven't truly come to open battle or skills mastering yet, I wonder if the third will need to be three times the length of the first to do full justice to the story we are expecting.  Where we ended makes more story even more necessary.I am definitely looking forward to the sequel, and while I am eager, I say to Mr. Bunn:  Please take all the time and care you need to do your story full justice.Kindle note: as there are multiple threads in these books, but not a table of contents, I have found it helpful to highlight the chapter titles and first couple sentences as I reach each one so I can find the appropriate chapter quickly when I want to check back.  The map is one page back from go to the beginning - good for a quick reference and then use the back button to go right back to where you were.