Brotherhood of the Wolf

An excellent sequel! This book moved at a much faster pace, and introduced some amazing characters and places! I definitely enjoyed reading about more than simply another two-way fight like in the previous book. The original Runelords books gave us a slight taste of the menacing reavers that had been discussed, and it seemed clear right from the get go that they would be the bigger enemy by far, even before being discussed much. The new lands such as Fleeds being discussed was very cool. And seeing a matriarchal warrior culture is an awesome twist! The battle in the climax was awesome, very descriptive, and I could definitely picture the events happening in my mind! Iy played out just like a movie!

This book also advances beyond the first in that you have several different threads through the book, all connecting in the end. I like the story of Averan, Pole, and Roland. It's interesting to see new ways of magic being used besides the runes. Indeed, some of the spells are of a more traditional fantasy magic type. However, the magic is at a cost, and must be used wisely or it will be withdrawn. This is a good way to prevent rampant overpower by someone with unchecked magical powers. Indeed, it would seem that the burden born by Gaborn is much more a curse than a blessing. It's almost unrealistic that he can emotionally handle seeing so many die that he has made so close to himself. It was touching to see how Father Borenson felt for a little girl after just meeting her, and it was fun to learn a little bit about Borenson's past. I will say that the book's length (and the slowness with which I read it made it difficult to keep it in mind that these events, in both books, have all taken place over the course of one week. In some cases there are several hundred pages between encounters with a particular storyline but less than a day has passed. Farland does seem to be cognizant of that since he seems to bring up this short timespan frequently. The only other criticism I guess I would have is that with little artwork that I could find, I can't help but imagining the reavers as giant versions of the Aliens from the franchise of the same name. I know the cover art isn't from Farland, but maybe with the reavers making their first big appearance, they should have appeared on the cover instead of the Darkling Glory.

All in all, an excellent book, much better than the first book. Seeing that the lands are indeed expanding, as are the characters, I'm excited to see where this goes!