Book Review: The Pyre of Tarsin by K.J. Backer (Nav'Aria #2)

Let's have a look at the second book in the Nav'Aria series, The Pyre of Tarsin, shall we? Spoiler alert.

We return to the world of Nav'Aria in this second installment in the series. This time, Darion, his bonded unicorn Triumph and their two friends set out on a journey across Rav'Aria in hopes of finding a weapon to defeat Narco. Meanwhile back at home, the king and his allies are fighting hard to keep their kingdom and bring down both him and his trusted ally Morta.

I honestly consider this one a bit of a downgrade after the first one. I hoped that Backer would keep up the great worldbuilding and story, but unfortunately I think this is a bit of a step back in both respects. I simply couldn't care as much for this story, with a lot of it just being traversing an endless desert, and the worldbuilding isn't expanded upon too much. I still like the realm of Nav'Aria and beyond, but it's really not as stand out as I'd hoped. 

I still like the same characters as before, but I don't feel like any really deep developments are taking place here other than Triumph facing his daughter he thought to be dead and Darion setting out on a quest for revenge after his adopted mother dies. I cared not for the new characters, including the dragons. These are supposed to be great reptiles I care about, but I just wasn't moved by them. The relationships between Darion and Edmond and their love interests also felt very boring and one-note without any real depth or credibility to them. I don't even know why we needed romantic interests for them on this journey. Nala and her sister are boring characters and therefore I really didn't need to see a relationship between them and our leads develop. Narco is still a good if not basic villain, and I must say I like the implication that Morta is the one secretly behind it all, but other than that there still isn't too much I really felt myself interested in.

I once more found some minor errors and the pacing in this one also felt rather slow in comparison to the first. 

The dark themes also continue in this book, so heads up if you're not ready for that.

Overall, this is not one of the best fantasies I've ever read. I won't go as far as to say it's bad, it's not, but I really hoped for something better after how good the first book was.

Rating: 3/5