Book Review: Duncton Quest by William Horwood (Duncton Chronicles #2)

Book two! Let's take a gander. Spoilers ahead.

This book follows Bracken and Rebecca's son Tryfan as he goes on an epic quest. Belief in the Stone is at an all-time low, with a vicious cult known as the Word on the rise, who are being led by none other than Rune's daughter Henbane. Tryfan and his best friend Spindle go on a quest and will have to find a way to put an end to the moles of the Word. 

This is yet another epic installment in this series, and I'm pleased to say I quite liked it. Similar to the first book it has intricate world-building, well thought-out characters, a plot which keeps the reader engaged and an epic quest tying everything together. I definitely recommend this one if you liked the first book.

That said, I do have a few minor gripes with this one which I did not have with the first. First of all, I thought this one felt a little slow and like it dragged at times. Like the first book, this is a long book (even longer than Duncton Wood at almost 1000 pages). However for the first Duncton book I never really felt the length. Sure, it was a long book, but it consistently kept me engaged and I never really felt it was that long or slow. But that was the case here. The pacing was just a little slow and the book felt bloated at times. 

Another thing is that this time around I connected a little less with the characters than I did in Wood. I'm not saying the characters are badly written here; they're not. Horwood is in fact very good at writing well thought-out and interesting characters. But I'd be lying if I said I really connected with the characters here outside of Spindle, Tryfan and Bosswell (who is barely in it). Henbane as a villain is also great, but I did prefer Mandrake and Rune from the first book. I know Rune returns in this book as well, but he's barely there and doesn't do all that much. Henbane is still a great villain, though, I just personally preferred the dudes from the first book a little more.

So yeah, overall a good book still and I absolutely recommend it, it just isn't quite the same perfect gem to me that the first book was. Can't wait for book three!

Rating: 4/5