Publishing information: Paperback; 528 pages
Publisher: Orion Publishing; 13 November 2008
ISBN 10: 0575082798
ISBN 13: 9780575082793
Series- Book 2 in the Chronicles of the Raven trilogy.
Copy "Out of pocket"
Reviewer: Tyson
Back of the Book "An apocalyptic spell has been cast, an ancient evil banished. Now the land of Balaia, still riven by war, must live with the consequences. The Dawnthief spell- designed to destroy the world, but cast to save it- has torn a hole in the sky, a pathway into the dragon dimension, and, through it, unfriendly eyes are turning to Balaia.
With war already sweeping the land, there are no armies to send against the dragons. All that stands between Balaia and complete dominion by these tyrannous beasts is a tine, but legendary band of mercenaries: The Raven."
Not long ago I reviewed the first novel by James Barclay, Dawnthief, and found it to be a fine and worthy tale. However, I had a lot of other books on my plate and it took me some time to get back to The Raven and their adventures. Looking at my pile of unread books Noonshade was staring at me and telling me it was time to return.
I was really glad I did as I was quickly held in Barclay's grip and the story refused to let me go. The characters in the Noonshade are immersive. There is a character for everyone to enjoy and at least one to admire, and of course, one to hate. Ilkar is one of my favorites, along with the Unknown Warrior and Harid. These three are the core Ravens. The have been with the team since its creation and know how to turn the tide of war from utter defeat to glorious victory. As your read the story you can not help but root for these guys to come out on top. Noonshade is the thinking man's hack and slash, sword and sorcery. There is a lot of tactical discussions and while it does deal with magic you get the sense that while they are well versed in combat, there are things they can and can not do. This helps sustain your belief in the story. They are not all-powerful and are keen to make mistakes like anyone else. The difference is that with their combined combat experience they know how to turn the the tides of war.
The setting is the same as in Dawnthief, Balaia which has nearly every geographical region as we do here on earth: Deserts, prairies, and fertile plains. Large scaled cities and small huddled villages all trying to survive the onslaught that war brings. However, we are allowed to peak behind the curtain of two other dimensions. The world of demons and of dragons. We do not spend a whole lot of time in the demon's world but we do visit that of the dragons and it is quite interesting. I will not spoil it for those that have not read Noonshade but it would make for interesting books on their own if Barclay wanted to.
The magic system is another great aspect of the trilogy. There is a price to pay for using magic as it weakens and tires the caster and the system uses geometric shapes in order to obtain the requested spell. Barclay goes into great detail for a few of the spells used in Noonshade and it allows the reader to gain a great deal of knowledge on how magic works in his world without giving you a huge information dump.
When you are finished with Noonshade you are left with a cliffhanger which promises to take The Raven on another great adventure. One that I plan to follow soon. While Noonshade was a great book it was not as great as Dawnthief. Of course, living up to Dawnthief is nearly impossible. I enjoyed the story and returning to some great protagonists but, it just did not feel as massive and impressive as the first book in the series. That is not to say that the book or the series in not worth reading, just that it was not as stirring as the first. book three, Nightchild appears to be a much bigger adventure and looks to be more in the vein of book one. Nightchild's review will be coming soon.
Plot 8
Characters 8
Style 8
Overall 7/10
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