Quest For The Magic McGuffin Two:Electric Boogaloo

Simon Bubb is good. Now;

This is a confused re-telling of The Ember Blade (which I thought was excellent) in that the main cast is trying to fetch a magical artifact from a dangerous place. However, while the Ember Blade was skillfully woven into the fabric of the first book it shared its name with and was a constant, ever-present idea, the Shadow Casket itself is dumped in the second book out of nowhere and forgotten about when it's convenient. I just did not care at all about this object that was apparently deserving enough to be the namesake of book two, because it's the focus of about 10% of the narrative.

Character-wise, it's a mixed bag - Fen, for example, has major character defining moments, changes of heart and perspective, and... we just don't get to see them? It's all after the fact? Instead, we get these weird one-sided conversations from some random woman who only seems to be there to pontificate on the nature of revolution and make Aren all awkward because she's got lady parts. There's some very strong Grub stuff in there, but most of the individual character arcs are middling.

This isn't a terrible book, but it doesn't feel like a worthy successor to The Ember Blade because it lacks focus, and fundementally misunderstands what made the first one so good; the ideals of camaraderie and fellowship are completely lost in a meandering, somewhat cynical story where the magic artifact in the title isn't even important for the plot to exist. I'll read the next one, but this was a huge disappointment.

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11 out of 10, Chris Wooding how dre you! I love it.

The Ember Blade blew my mind. I didn't think the sequel would match it.
I was wrong.
Chris has created a masterpiece.
It ruined my life. I want to read it again.
11 out of 10.

I want Grub to be my friend.

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literally the best series i've read

It's hard for me to describe how much I have enjoyed these books. The Ember Blade is probably my favourite book of all time Mr, but this comes close. and the pair of them are quite a way in front of anything else I've read.
the mix of twists and turns, some obvious, some subtle, some completely unpredictable, means that Chris Wooding has created a situation where you are never quite sure who is doing what and for what reason. even when you correctly guess the outcome of a situation you can't be sure until the resolution.

the book, like it predecessor is pretty brutal, with people suffering and dying out of the blue at times, but I think that certainly lends to the atmosphere of the world. it helps that as a reader, you can never be sure if your favourite character is about to die. great book, excellent narration. if I could score it 6 stats, I'd score it 10. it's really that good in my opinion.

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Exciting, gripping entry

Anything I disliked about book one (needed a spot of editing) wasn’t an issue here.

Great book, full of plotty twists and great narration. Zoomed through it.

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Ok, but does not deliver on all fronts

The first book build up to an epic fantasy story with an intricate and believable world. It is very focused on the characters and the relationship between them, but does this really well.

With the second book it becomes obvious that the full story wasn't paved out and the author struggles with trying to connect all the threads in a meaningful way. Some are just brutally cut off, others are reduced in a very unsatisfying way, ending in a disappointing anti climax (e.g. the chosen one).

It is as many others point out a lot of the same from the first book, just slightly lower quality.

That being said, I'd say it's enough here to make it worth the time for me.
It's still better than the average fantasy novel (which isn't particularly good), just don't expect top tier quality on this one.
Pity, cause I'm sure the author could deliver if he'd actually finished the whole story before writing the first novel. I have hopes for his next work, but not the next novel in this series.

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Great second book, looking forward to the next

I can see why some people might think these books a bit slow to get going, but the writing, characters, dialogue and world building are never not interesting and compelling. And a satisfying third act means the slow build up is worth it.

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Just as good as the first book

I really enjoyed this book and the growth of characters, especially Grub. Can’t wait for the next instalment.

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I had high hopes for this book

So disappointing, I had loved the first book and was really looking forward to the follow up, but I found it tedious and boring I felt myself drifting from concentration when listening as it just felt so slow and boring, don't know how the author could get this so wrong after doing a brilliant job with the first book , sadly not for me.

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I tried. 10 hours in couldn't face another 20

So disappointing. I felt like the slow dragging bits of the Ember Blade (which I really liked overall) had been expanded to fill this book out, which I thought was a real shame.
The narration was okay, but the pacing felt off, a little slow - that coupled with the slow pace of the story meant it just didn't grab me.

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