The Twisted Citadel by Sara Douglass

Tencendor is no more. The land is gone. But a few SunSoars remain, and a new foe walks the world.

In a time of magic and danger, three new heroes have stepped forward—Ishbel Brunelle, priestess of the Serpent Coil; Isaiah, the Tyrant of Isembaard; and Maximilian, the Lord of Elcho Falling. Yet despite their best efforts, the Dark God Kanubai has risen. And worse yet, war approaches—backed by the evil, insidious DarkGlass Mountain, hordes of insatiable Skraelings ravage the land.

While the trio struggles to keep its armies and alliances alive, the SunSoars have their own challenges, including the chance to rejoin the magical Star Dance at long last, and the appearance of the Lealfast, long-lost kin to the Icarii. The Lealfast and the Icarii may be friends . . . or deadly enemies. And as tensions rise between the two races, Axis SunSoar revives his elite Strike Force in a desperate bid to stop the darkness.

After reading The Serpent Bride by Sara Douglass, I knew that I was going to have to spend some time with more of her books. It just so happened that soon after I finished that book the sequel came out. The only bad thing about that is that since I have read it already I have a very long wait ahead of me for book three! In the meantime I will likely be reading some of her older stuff.

One of the things I was worried about in regards to this book was that it would suffer from second-book problems. Generally the second book in a trilogy is a bit dull because it goes back and develops everything that was started in the first book. There is not usually much action involved, which can lead to a dull read. People told me that Sara Douglass was not like this, and I readily agree with them at this point. This book was just as much a page-turner as the first one and I know for sure that I am hooked on her writing style. Trilogies that I have loved the first book have been destroyed for me because I find the second book so boring, so it was wonderful to dive into this book and not be disappointed.

In this book, lots of loose ends are tied up and yet there is still plenty to happen in the last book. We do see much more of the main characters that were introduced in the first book, but they are always busy, so it is not just character descriptions. A few new characters have come to the forefront as main characters, so it was refreshing to have new characters to read about, as well as the ones that I so enjoyed in the first book. Ishbel has grown on me, as well, she did not annoy me at all in this book, while with the first book I found her ways a bit annoying at times. She has really grown up for this book.

The Lealfast are introduced in this book. A couple of them were bit characters in the first book, but we did not really know what they were all about. In this book they make a strong appearance and really add an interesting dynamic to the book. I will be interested to see in what direction they carry the story for the third book. They play strongly into questions of identity, with half their blood being of the allied forces and the other half coming from the enemy. This split identity makes them very interesting characters. While we know a lot of the time what they are thinking, the main characters are not always aware of what is going on. It will be interesting to see in what direction Douglass takes the story.

There is a lot to look forward to with the third book. Some people think that the answers are obvious, but readers know that there is a lot that could happen within those pages. I am very excited to see what happens. I once again strongly recommend Sara Douglass!

I got this book from Harper Collins Canada. I am very grateful to them! Normally I link to the actual book on their site, but as of right now the URL is taking you to a blog instead of the book site... Not sure what is up with that!