Review: Another Solid Story from Thaddeus White
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 22, 2013
I read this book because I read White's first book, 'Bane of Souls,' and I enjoyed it. This one is set in the same world and refers to events and characters from the first story, but is not precisely a sequel because it's not picking up where that left off. It follows different characters off on their own plot, but I was told by the author that this book would have more of the Kuhrisch. Since I really liked that race of folk, I knew I wanted to read this one.On the whole, this book was good and I did enjoy it.There is kind of a meandering quality to the plot, which is interesting to read. It didn't really, to me, feel like it was building any sense of urgency and some things happened that didn't seem to have any real point in terms of the story arcs, but it never wandered in a way that was uninteresting. White is a very competent writer and he pulls you along fairly effortlessly through the story, from point to point, even when you pause at times and say... Was there a point?I recall feeling this way during certain sections of 'Bane of Souls,' but in 'Journey to Altmortis' I found it consistent throughout, making it feel a part of the story telling rather than uneven pacing.Interestingly, in the light of Thaddeus and Lynette being the "main" characters, I found this a book that is built on the foundation of the secondaries. In truth, I found the brother and sister-while having their interesting points-to be kind of bloodless characters. Him more so than her, she had some life to her at times, but generally speaking they just did things and moved the plot but I never felt very engaged by them.The secondaries, however, were great. I loved Fritigern and Anja-two Kuhrisch, big freakin' surprise-and I thought Pretty Pierre turned out to be quite an interesting character, while Roger was...well, we'll be nice and call him very colorful.When we discover the Big Bad in the city of Altmortis, I was initially almost a little disappointed...having expected something "more," I guess, but as I read on, the concept grew on me and I thought where White went with it was pretty cool. In general, the whole ending moved at a nice clip and with some interesting stuff, and I did particularly like the very end. But I'm a little twisted that way.So, I can't really rave about it, cause I did have my small issues with it, but it's a solid story carried along in a good narrative voice. This one gets another solid 4 rating, and I believe I'll keep on reading White's work.