Prisoner of the Iron Tower: Book 2 of the Tears of Artamon [Hardcover]

I enjoyed this novel more than I did the first book in this series, and read it quite quickly. The story moves along at a brisk pace with a steady character development for all the main players in the story with no noticeable slow patches in the plot pacing.

By ridding himself of the Drakhaon Gavril Nagarian appears to have gained personal freedom for himself. However, he has left his country fatally weakened to Prince Eugene's ambition. Gavril and those he loves will pay a price higher than he ever imagined for his freedom from his daemon and by the end of this novel the whole world will stand on the brink of disaster as old secrets and their promise of power become unravelled.

I'm looking forward to book 3 of this series, which I assume is the final volume. It will be interesting to see how these storylines resolve as these characters grow on you as you are alternatively appreciative and appalled by their actions.

This was an excellent follow-up to the Lord of Snow and Shadows. I expected this book to be fairly linear in plot, however I was pleasantly surprised at the many twists and turns the author led us through in this adventure. I found myself being constantly surprised at the increasingly complicated plot and Sarah Ash has done a wonderful job of letting us understand how each character feels. The Drakhoul is less demon and more tortured soul in this book. We learn more about its origins and history; I hope Sarah goes into this in more detail in the next volume.
The end was very dramatic and the cliffhanger ending will definitely have me coming back for the third installment.
I recommend this book to all fantasy lovers, although do keep in mind that there are many characters and different points of view and it can sometimes be difficult to keep everyone's story straight. Excellent adventure!

I finished this book feeling a bit bemused. That came as no real surprise, as I remember having the same reaction to the first book in the series. It's not bad fantasy, by any means, but it seems to me that the characters are so shallow and erratic that bemusement is a reasonable response to the story.

Gavril, the hero of the novel, can always be counted on to do the right thing for others, unless he's too busy reacting to events and just can't find the time. After escaping from the tower, he goes home to rest and instead ends up overexerting himself in the cause of Smarnan independence. He then messes around for days in the company of the rebels, leaving his druzhina (to whom he owes greater loyalty, one would think) to the tender mercies of the Tielens until his men nearly get crushed in a mine collapse. He's similarly uninterested, at first, in his lady love Kiukiu, having been instantly smitten by one of the Smarnan rebels. And Gavril seems strangely incapable of planning for the predictable results of his transformations into the dragon; he knows he'll need to drink blood afterward, but he just lets the need build up until he goes wild, rather than nipping a bit here and there so that he'll be able to control himself better. It's not consistent with his good guy persona that he'd *still* be in denial and handle his physical needs so badly.

Then there's Kiukiu, who also spends all of her time reacting to events. In the first book, Gavril's mother got herself into trouble by trusting everyone she ran across; in this book, it's Kiukiu's turn to exhibit this irritating personality trait. For reasons that are never explained, she implicitly trusts the Magus, in spite of the fact that he's been working for the Emperor (Gavril's archenemy) for years. Thus he is able to dupe her over and over again, until she needs some serious rescuing. When she's not in need of rescue, however, she's a Spirit Singer of enormous power who can do nearly anything even though she's only been in training for a brief time.

The Emperor Eugene doesn't make any better sense. While he's busy opening primary schools and generally behaving like an enlightened monarch, he keeps a wizard as his closest advisor (think Napoleon meets Rasputin), and he's trying to get himself possessed by a demon of his own. There seems to be a contradiction here, one that would make a person with more than two thoughts in his head pause for a moment to try to figure out what kind of empire he's really trying to create. Eugene doesn't pause, however; he leaps into the life of the demon-possessed with gusto, never reflecting on possible consequences. That's just silly.

Then there are the small illogicalities and inconsistencies that detract from the plot: after Gavril returns to human form, his clothes are always shredded and he loses his shoes. Nevertheless, he can wander without being noticed through the imperial palace afterward, where such attire (or lack thereof) would be likely to draw some attention. And how to explain the fact that the 'new' demon who possesses Eugene is actually more powerful than Gavril's? Does it make sense that an old saint would be able to banish a more powerful demon, but find himself incapable of defeating a lesser one? I suspect the point here is to portray Gavril as the underdog in the ensuing fight, which makes sense from an emotional point of view. It just makes no logical sense.

Reading these books is ultimately a frustrating experience, and will probably remain so unless you have a deep and abiding interest in matters sartorial. If you don't care what people are wearing, and like your characters to make sense, I can't recommend this series. It might be worth checking out from the library, but you ought to spend your money elsewhere.

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