/lit/ - Literature

>>19525403
Sorcery of a Queen, Dragons of Terra #2 - Brian Naslund (2020)
I find it much easier to give the benefit of the doubt to the first book in a series than any following book. The second book often shows whether the author learned from their mistakes and/or whether the first was merely a fluke. This is unfortunately sometimes undermined by the second in a trilogy being a transitional book. While I wouldn't call this transitional, it certainly seems to primarily be for setting up the third book. I would've preferred it to follow up its some of its themes from the first book rather than for the majority to be a suicidal quest again, but that suffices as well.

There's wholesale slaughter and many characters die, but I didn't find it to be very impactful. That usually requires some emotional investment. When a bunch of influential nobodies are killed that's mostly a statement of what characters are willing to do more than anything else. There are a few characters that time has been spent on that die, but I feel that those involved were either too nonchalant or hamfisted about their deaths for me to feel much. As with the first book there's sex, though this time the only scene where there's more than a couple sentences are two male youths fumbling around.

The series antagonist was introduced relatively late in the first book. There's much more focus on him in this one and probably will be in the third book. I like him, but he's in the wrong series, for me at least. He's directly responsible for almost all the in-universe elements I don't like in this series. Everything he does just seems so out of place, mostly in terms of technological advancement. His goal of imposing perfect order on the world is relatively common, but how he wants to go about it irks me in this otherwise not technologically advanced setting. I think that would be less of a concern others.

Overall, I found this to be a weaker book, perhaps only because I didn't overlook as much. The series is a fun read, but it isn't anything particularly notable aside from maybe its propensity to quickly overthrow established systems. I expect the third to be more similar to the second than the first. Depending on how the third book goes, I may have to relegate this series to being little better than average because of how it doesn't do much with the several good ideas it has. So, while it hasn't been quite what I'd want it to be, I can certainly see the appeal for others to enjoy it more for what it is.
Rating: 3/5