Darker than EB, but Stick It Out - End is Worth It

The plot in this book is on par or better than the first, but there were a few things that made it harder for me to finish (it took 3.5 days vs 2 for the Ember Blade):
- Multiple characters are introduced (or continued), developed, and then die, which was fine once but was a bit draining when it kept happening multiple times throughout the book
- There is so much betrayal I found myself not wanting to warm up to characters only to have them betray the Dawnwardens
- Frustrating misunderstandings between Aren and Fen (like zero EQ one minute, then with anyone else they're back to their normal character)

In short, there were a lot of frustrating and sad things that made me give up hope in any kind of good ending for the MC's. But that's true to war, and even life in general, isn't it?

If you stick it out, I think you'll like the ending. It was a rollercoaster getting there, but this part of the story tied up well in the end with some lose ends tied up and a fresh spark of hope for the future.

With the first book compared to LOTR or some other modern fantasy epics, I'll say this one definitly doesn't fit the bill on that - the characters and world are similarly well developed, but the amount of betrayal makes hope seem a distant thing instead of the sometimes palpable hope in the goodness of the characters you get from LOTR. Between that and so many characters dying, the band of characters doesn't have the same sense of fellowship they had in the Ember Blade. That doesn't mean Darkwater is bad by comparison, just don't expect warm feelings in a small fellowship of characters sticking it out together.

One last plus about this book, the main "villain" isn't some stereotypical evil trope, but a POV character with a human backstory and motivations. Wooding does a great job at humanizing both sides of the struggle in this series, while still giving an accurate portrayal of evil in various forms.

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Dissapointing second book

Performance by the narrator was great, story was a damn slog.
Hamfisted love story and filler ruins all momentum. Dropped it after chapter 20

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Flabbergasted

I don’t want to be that guy who trashes someone’s work. But this is by no means remotely close to the masterpiece of the Ember Blade. I’d recommend the Ember Blade to anyone. This this is exhausting the flow is way out of alignment. The progression of this book makes you think Chris Wooding died and some random John Doe wrote it for him with his notes. Translated from hieroglyphics. That’s likely harsher than it needs to be. Though I expected better.
Simon Bubb is exceptional

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Decent 2nd entry, not as good as the first

As someone who very much enjoyed the first book in this series, I didn't enjoy the this second installment as much. The story went in a direction that I *personally* did not enjoy. There are a few plot developments that occur within the first ~15 chapters or so that made a lot of the character development that occurred in the first book a moot point. Additionally, as other reviewers have pointed out, some of the major misunderstandings between characters that occur in this book happen because of lack of simple communication, which is always frustrating to read about. I also did not enjoy some of the character arcs that occurred in this book, especially Fen's. It felt like all of the development that occurred in the first book was thrown out the window, and she doesn't really stay true to the character we've come to know her as. I like how her story wraps up in the end, but I did not like the journey to this destination.

That being said, there are parts of this book that are very entertaining, especially the action sequences! There are a lot of backstabbing and betrayals events, and as such, you get to a point in the story where you don't quite truly know if a character is acting in good faith or not. I found all of that really interesting, as I was always kept guessing on the true motives of various characters.

Grub still remains the best character in the series so far. Reading chapters from his POV, and just generally chapters with him being involved, is always a delight! A big bonus is the villain's POV chapters in this book - as I thought he was very well developed over the course of the story. All of the new characters introduced in this book all have a significant purpose, and are written really well too.

Unfortunately, I found Aren's journey this time around to be a little underwhelming, especially compared to his development in Book 1. Here, he struggles with his title as being the "Champion" of the Dawnwardens, and a lot of his POV chapters focus on that issue. While I do like how his story wraps up at the end, I will admit that his decision on how he handles his responsibility towards the Ember Blade itself may not sit well with some readers. Instead of a traditional hero's journey, it seems like Wooding has something else in mind for his main character. But I suppose we shall see what happens in the third book. Overall though, it just feels like the needle was moved very little concerning Aren's overall development in Book 2.

This is probably a slight spoiler, but my final critique is with the title of the book - The Shadow Casket. It's hardly ever talked about...? There's probably really only about 15% of the book or so that is devoted to it. The entire part concerning the Shadow Casket could easily be removed from the book entirely, and the story wouldn't have been affected too much. And the way the the retrieval of it is handled is just....incomplete. I found the entire section of this story to be the lowest point of the book. And even worse, there's no conclusion that's reached concerning it. I guess the third book will be crucial in seeing how it plays out, but I find that to be poor writing and/or planning. I question why exactly it was chosen as the name of the book.

I personally find the narrator - Simon Bubb - to be okay. Not amazing, but not poor either. The huge knock that I have on him, and this existed in the first book, is that when a character is supposedly yelling, Simon delivers those lines in a voice that sounds like a harsh whisper. It's simply jarring to hear those lines delivered as such, especially during intense battles.

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Great sequel

I loved Ember Blade and this didn't disappoint. A lot happens over the course of the book and you really feel that a lot is accomplished by the time the end is reached. I can't wait for the next book already haha, gonna be a long wait.
Spoilers: The only gripes I have are two things.
One is I didn't like that Aren gave away the Ember Blade. He was the chosen one and meant to be the hero and I liked his character growth all the way up until he gave it to a pretty random character that suddenly is now the future ruler of the country. and this new chosen one gave Aren a rather lame title of "Aren the Unchosen" in what I would consider a slight against him, even Fen said she can't help it if she likes her more and gave her a better title. I hope this is a temporary situation for Aren because it seems like a big step backwards for his character who is now "just another guy".
The second issue (and this will be a rant) I have is the whole relationship development of Aren and Fen. The book started off picking up pretty much where they left off from Ember Blade, despite 3 years having past, you are just filled in on how close they have both grown to each other and how they both want more, even love each other but can't seem to say it to one another. Then out of left field Fen starts to fuc another guy they just met after a couple weeks who completely disrespected her when they met and who makes passive aggressive digs at Aren every chance he gets right in front of her. Yet, she bangs the guy every chance she gets like a couple rabbits lol and gets pregnant, keeps it a secret, tries to abort it and fails, then gets angry and blames Aren? and they never talk about it again, it's all peachy and great afterwards. And how Aren is written in this "relationship" is very weak? he's always scared to say or do anything (despite Cade? saying Aren always had luck with women). He never makes a move, tells her how he feels, never fights to get Fen he just steps to the side and says oh well she's with this other guy now. And never talks with Fen about the baby and the betrayal he must have felt, and why she flipped out on him when he found out causing him to go on a suicide mission, etc . There is just no more progress after the first quarter of the book, she is with someone else, then they go separate ways, then reunite like nothing ever happened but she has chosen a new people and kinda moved on from Aren. In the final battle I hoped for a moment that Fen was gonna go and rescue/fight with Aren on the mountain to ignite the oil when she is looking up at where he went alone and they would have some kind of reunion and rekindle something in the process , but nope she stays with her new clan and Aren and her don't see each other again until the very end when it's all done and they say and do nothing to progress in any way. They might as well put a fork in this one, it's done. Go meet someone else Aren.

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Loved the story, the atmosphere, the writing!

Great quest story with twists and turns, amazing character development, beautiful atmosphere and prose. Looking eagerly forward to the next installment!

Unsatisfactory

The character development from the ember blade was lost, the direction taken with each character was a turn off. I was disappointed after slogging through this this much story how things turned out, undecided if I’ll continue to book 3, especially after the wait between 1 and 2. Spoiler, it loses 2 stars for killing off Ruck like that

surprisingly disappointed, skip this please

it was hard to finish this one, every character somehow lost all progression from book 1 besides grub I guess. It was just painful and cringe inducing to finish. honestly just read ember blade and pretend it ended with "and they all lived happily ever after" this book was so bad it honestly ruined the first one for me and I'm completely dropping this author. DO NOT USE YOUR CREDITS, unless you want to listen to a MC whine about responsibility for an entire book.

Fantastic

One of my new favorites.

Funny, intruiging and heartbreaking.

Narrator is also one of my new favorites.

Fantastic

Woofing really knows his stuff! Super rich story that had me guessing at every turn. Character development was phenomenal. The plot really came alive and was tugging on my heartstrings so much they are raw! This book dodged the mediocre prequel trap and instead did a slam dunk on intensity, relevance, and significance! Chris really hit this one out of the park and I can’t wait for the next book in the saga :)