The Mount of Xetesk - Review

Noonshade followed on beautifully from Dawnthief and surpassed the original in many ways. Set, again, against the backdrop of a civil war between the east and west, the Raven must stop dragons entering their dimension through the rip created by the casting of Dawnthief.

The use of battles and science works so well, once you have bought the dimensional travel from book one this outing real hits home. A nice touch to this is the large lack of continuity errors giving a feel that Barclay has planned this out meticulously. That aside, readers who didn't like the dimensional travel from the first book will find this hard going as it goes much deeper.

The occupation, for want of a better work, of Julatsa shows some brilliant writing. Barclay gives the Wesman a feel of reality and knowledge of warfare, there aren't many heroic saviors here and there is a lot of destruction. This carries through to the large scale battles and tactical awareness of many of the characters making battles more exciting....rather then a head long charge.

After the classic fantasy style of the first book, collect the artifacts, place them here, go on quest. Noonshade throws this out of the window, giving an original feel to proceedings. Again, the happy ever after effect is missing, a shock death near the end of the book put pay to that. I really didn't see it coming.

If there is a floor to the book, however, it is the ending. It feels a bit too rushed and oh....there we go. It also makes you wonder how the third book will follow on, in a way this is a cunning ploy making you think and rush to buy book three.

All in all, however, Noonshade is a better read that Dawnthief. And that is saying something....as Dawnthief is a brilliant book.

Chris Harvey - 11/04/04