Book Review: Tower Lord (Raven’s Shadow #2) by: Anthony Ryan
I gave this book five out of five stars for amazing characters, a hearty dose of action, and a beautiful balance of fantastic and reality. The focus of Tower Lord expands from the unified realm to cover the different people around the realm as well as a terrifying invading force. It’s an epic journey, and one so interesting you hate to see it end.
What I loved:
1) Strong female characters, they are not troupe laden, and they are not without faults. I feel Ryan takes great care in presenting all of his characters, but it was so refreshing to see the women in his cast were not overlooked.
2) Vaelin Al Sorna’s story continues, and everything gets bigger. I liked the meshing of Vaelin’s narrative with three others. Ryan had a mountain of political and fantastic information to convey and it’s a wonder he pulled it off so well with only four narratives. What happened to Frentis at the end of Blood Song broke my heart, and I was immediately taken by his story when he was reintroduced. Princess Lyrna became an even greater force to be admired and reckoned with, and it was wonderful to see her wits pitted up against physically overpowering situations. Reva had a beautiful character arc and it was lovely to see the connections she made with her family after being forcibly estranged from them.
3) Some of the mysteries from Blood Song are revealed. Of course a few more are added, but Ryan’s proven to his readers that the wait is worth it. I thought I planned better by reading this book right before the release of book three Queen of Fire. I did, the release is only a few weeks away, but it’s going to be a long few weeks for me. I can’t wait to read the third book.
