Cav's Place

As I was also saying about the previous book in the series, definitely like the writing style, despite the fact that there are still some typos, the setting remains intriguing, battle scenes are even more thrilling, and by now the characters have really grown into their personalities, each with layers and facets and depth and their own distinctive voice. I’m still particularly drawn to Fallon’s, shall we say, unfiltered but well-meaning awkwardness, but all the main ones are fleshed out, believable, to care and to cheer for, and some secondary ones aren’t bad at all either.
Unsure how to react to death being not just less of a nuisance than a common cold for any magically-gifted character, but likely even desirable, considering how things play out. But the much bigger issue I’m torn about has to do with the part of the story involving humans and taking place between the previous book and this one. It’s necessary, but I don’t want to see any of it, so the fact that it’s split and scattered throughout the book, quite rushed, especially at the end, and lacking many otherwise necessary details is both reason for complaint and cause for relief.
Definitely still bothered by the postapocalyptic setting, which, while still not at the level you’d expect, is now much harder to ignore or take as merely a backdrop. How much I enjoyed it in spite of this is a testament to how good the book is otherwise, but I so wish all of that would have been eliminated, replaced with something else. And, while perhaps no longer so much of a necessity, would have strongly preferred this book to be at least half again as long as well, adding many more details about characters, events and little things. As for some more specific, “localized” annoyances, all the infuriating and downright nauseating fussing and cooing over babies comes first to mind, but there’s also the untranslated speech in other languages. The point may be to show that characters didn’t understand it well either, but I was often left hardly understanding anything at all.

Rating: 4/5