Review: This is more potatoes and less meat.....
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 8, 2012
I have mixed emotions about book two in this series. I did like this book, but not as much as I did book one. Book one jumped back and forth from past to present which eventually grew on me as the author made the transition smoother as the story progressed.  I was hoping that he continued this technique but he abandoned it to keep book two primarily in the present.Calen was very successful in the first book of establishing solid characters, providing good action sequences and giving a good view of past and present to help tell the story.  In book two he spent the first third of the book just rambling around the story doing a lackluster job of reacquainting us with old characters in new roles, none of which really strengthens the story. Once he finally jumps off into the action sequences he chops them off with little or no detail.  He does introduce new plot directions that have potential but he never fully develops them, any of which could have provided good reading.It seemed to me that his intentions where to focus on different characters from the first book expanding our understanding of them but he does a poor job of providing them with the needed depth. It feels like he just decides the readers don't really want to hear about their growth and then he jumps back to the group dynamic of the first book to salvage the end of book two. He brings the book to an abrupt end with a cliffhanger for book three which he promises will end the series.I will read book three of course to see the ending, but with hope he will forge past the political intrigue he tried to develop in book two and focus on the main characters and tie up all the loose ends into a good ending that will do justice to them.