2007-12-06 Another entertaining chapter in the saga...

I enjoyed "The Briar King", even if I did not love it, and it's pretty much the same story with the follow-up in the four-book "Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone" series, "The Charnel Prince". I think I actually enjoyed this book a little more than the first one, but not enough to significantly raise the star rating.

Why did I enjoy it more? I think it partly has to do with the introduction of more fantasy elements than were present in the first book. Magic is a little more prominent, as are the exotic beasties and monsters. I dug the various chases and fights more than in the first book, too.

One of my complaints was that a new character who is introduced, the composer Leoff, never really clicked for me and I was never particularly interested in his story. Also, I am now wondering what the point of the Briar King is, based on what was revealed about him in this book. He's still around, but I am hoping that he has a relevance beyond what we have seen so far, and that this relevance will be discovered in the next book, "The Blood Knight". As it is, he doesn't seem worth having a whole book named after him, and the world-shattering significance that he held in the first book is not in evidence here.

But this is an enjoyable book, and maybe even a little better than the first one. Despite the fact that I hardly think this series is awesome, I have read enough to recommend it to fantasy fans. Incredible or not, you should find it worth your time.