I read and adored Friedman's Coldfire trilogy a few years ago - a blend of science and fantasy, with brilliant worldbuilding, vivid, rich and fascinating characters, and brilliant writing and description. A while ago, I picked up her second trilogy, starting with A Feast of Souls, and was, frankly, disappointed. Her main character was irritating, unlikable and not in the least bith sympathetic, and while I was curious enough about the ending to finish the book, I certainly wasn't on the lookout for its siblings. However, the second book arrived as a gift, so here goes:

In a world where the price of magic is life itself, a group of seemingly immortal sorcerers appears to have cheated the system. But only one man knows the true origin of their power, or understands the true cost. Now Kamala - born to poverty and abuse, the first woman to claim a Magister's power - will seek her rightful place among these mages, and lay siege to their secrets. The monk Salvator will claim his father's throne, and test his faith against a legendary darkness. The beautiful Siderea Aminestas, consort to Magisters, will be offered the thing she desires most - at the cost of her human soul. And an ancient Evil thought long-destroyed begins to stir anew, corrupting kings, shattering alliances and ultimately threatening to unweave the very fabric of human civilisation. A mystical bloodline was cultivated to withstand this darkness, and its power must be wakened. But this will demand sacrifice of its warriors - and corruption is rife.

 It's an improvement on the first book of the series, but falls well short of her first trilogy.

Our main protagonist, Kamala, starts to develop some humanity, but is still far too out of touch with her own feelings or the feelings of others to be believable. She struggles with anyone expressing gratitude towards her, or respecting her, and yet that's exaclty what she envies when she meets women who are treated as equals by men. She spends an entire book wondering at her own attraction to a man, after running through more or less that exact process in the first book.

In short, she's patchy and inconsistent, but admittedly less irritating and inhuman this time around. Other characters are most consistent, but not particularly more interesting. There are a few mysteries set up and some posed questions, but I was honstly struggling to care.

There are some really great ideas in here, particularly the 'true cost' of their defence, and indeed the whole set-up, but it's swamped out by scenes that are just frankly dull (I found myself skimming), characters who have little input and should have been amalgamated, and the occasional truly cringworthy description - it shattered like rotton silk. Rotten silk can shatter? News to me. I think that might be her word of the year - almost every time she used it (which was quite often) it was in conjuction with something that just wouldn't shatter. Ah well.

As before, I was still curious enough to finish the book, but I wouldn't be looking for the third one. When she brings out her next trilogy, I'll take a gander - there's still enough good faith from her Coldfire series that I'll forgive her one that's a little rough around the edges. But I'd steer clear of this lot, for now.