Another ARC review. Per usual, me being given a free copy of this book does not mean it'll affect my opinion on the book. These are my honest views. Also, spoilers ahead.
After Frelik's death, Ashiy and Ziliac both set out into the world to put him to rest, by bringing home some of Frelik's fur to his parents in the town of Sepplecretem. Ziliac keeps being plagued by visions and later finds out that Dusklight, Frelik's killer, is still alive. Meanwhile Ashiy hopes to find out more about his late parents by visiting their graves in Sepplecretem. Together the wolf and fox will discover more secrets tying into the world's past.
Yep, this is a solid followup to the first book. I think I honestly like this one more than the first one, though the first isn't bad by any means. But things really felt like they got going in this book.
For one, I really want to complement the world-building for this universe. I genuinely could get lost here and just learn a lot about the various species, cultures, beliefs, towns, history and lore, etc. We definitely go more in-depth in this second installment, but I still feel there's a lot of room for new aspects to be explored. Looking forward to this in future books!
This book also had my favorite setting in the series so far: Sepplecretem, a town with huge graveyards and crypts and an interesting system of animals looking after and guarding the crypts. Also, bonus points for introducing undead elements, because I really like these in fantasy.
I also really just loved some of the characters. The standout character for me this book really was Ziliac. I already liked him in book one, but in this installment he's one of its protagonists and I just loved reading his arc and POV. He's just a super interesting yet flawed character and I loved seeing his various relationships to the characters around him change throughout the book, such as the one between him and Ashiy, and the one between Ziliac and his father. Other characters I liked were Fyra (an interesting newcomer, a magical Arctic fox) and Jiji, who was just adorable.
If I do have one criticism for this book, it's still that I don't think Ashiy is a very interesting character, an issue I also had with the first book. He's not badly written by any means, but he's just a bit bland and forgettable as far as standard fantasy protagonists go. I do like him, and his relationships with the characters around him, and his quest to find his deceased parents, but I'd be lying if I said I thought he was the most interesting out of the cast. Especially as a protagonist I keep hoping for just a little more from this character.
I also thought that some of the infodumping once we start to get more into the history of the world and specifically the stuff regarding Keld and his daughters could get a little bit much. It was just a lot of information for me to process at once and I do wonder if it perhaps could've been spread out a little more so it's easier for the reader to process. I had to read this backstory section over a couple of times before grasping the lore. But maybe that's just on me and the fact that I don't do well with large infodumps. I personally prefer having information delivered to me in small bite-sized chunks.
Also, I spotted at least one typo and one formatting error in this book.
But this is still a very solid second installment and I do recommend it. Especially for fans of fantasy and animal xenofiction.
Rating: 4/5
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