A Sword from Red Ice

No, dust jacket.

I have read all of Ms. Jone's previous works and was very satisfied. Found Sword of Shadows Book 1 at book store, immediately ordered the second book and had Sword From Red Ice by the time I finished the second one. Fantastic writer!! Characters are full, stories suspenseful,and very entertaining. However, I thought this was a trilogy but to my dismay, when I got to the last 50 pages of the book, I realized that there will have to be at least one more book. Now I have to wait awhile for the continuance of the story,but it I'm sure it will be worth the wait.

This book is told from the perspectives of 8 individuals who are all central to the story. They are all scattered around the Northern Territtories. The characters are all interesting and deep and their stories are all fairly action packed and loosely connected. One of the best aspects of the story telling is that all the characters are introduced strongly enough that you will not forget them when they reappear in a later chapter. I havn't read the two previous books for quite a few years yet still I never got confused about who I was reading about. And I think this book was very exighting so that I was never bored while reading it. This is one of my favorate books. To sum it up I think it is somewhat more character driven than most fantasy books but the plot is great.

This series hooked me with the first one; A Cavern of Black Ice, and I've since read all of J.V. Jones's books. Sure there are better writers out there, but as far as good story-telling goes, Ms. Jones is up there with the best of them. Sword of Shadows reads like a tale told by the village story-teller or a traveling minstrel earning his next room and board. To me, that's the way a fantasy story should be written, like it's a story you'd expect to hear while waiting out a storm in cozy hearth-warmed pub or told to a group of warriors-hunters gathered around a camp-fire deep in a primeval forest. JVJ writes just enough description to give you a solid image and feel of the people and places of this world without bogging down the story with too much detail.(Unfortunately description has seemed to become a forgotten art in a lot of the new fantasy books). She is truly gifted at character creation. They are real and interesting. The vilest can have commendable traits and the most heroic can carry dark secrets. A Sword of Red Ice keeps the momentum of the series rolling and leaves you anxiously waiting for the next book. Just like one of its characters Angus Lok; this installment gives you just enough information to keep you traveling the path but holds some back and you'll just have to see this adventure through to get all the answers.

I had a wonderful time reading this book. It's a great follow-on to the first two books in this series. The book draws you in with vivid settings, rich in detail. I felt immersed in the scenes and experiences of the characters. The harshness and desolation of some of the landscapes amplifies the mood and struggles in the story. The main characters are intriguing and complex and many of the minor characters are unique and interesting enough to be the focus of their own novels. The author has woven the settings and compelling story lines together with a beautifully descriptive style. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of this series to see where the characters lead.

Like the first two books this is a pleasingly hefty tome, coming in at 623 pages in hardcover. I've been looking forward to this book for years, it has been delayed quite a bit. Finished in January 2006, the publishers decided to publish it only in October 2007. Upside of this should be that four in this five part series comes out sooner than this one, and indeed it turns out that book 4 is currently being written and is expected in 2009. Characters featured here are all the folks you want to read about; Raif, Ash, The Dog Lord ,Raina Blackhail, Mace Blackhail, Marafice Eye, various intriguing Sull characters, we even get glimpses of the Endlords, we see Effie Severance, Raif's young sister, we see Bram Cormac's story getting really good and Baralis, Drey Severance and Angus Lok are featured as well. And there are new characters like The Lamb Brothers and Chedd Limehouse, a young lad taken captive. Now, that's a lot of characters and even with a book this size some of these will get short shrift. I think a reader can come away from this book with the feeling that not all storylines were as strong ( which is true of course, as in so many stories) or that they did not progress as far as you might have thought. Of course this is only book 3 of 5, and not the end of a trilogy, so that is something you should keep in mind. Characterization and the superb ice setting are what makes superb for me, Jones has really improved as a writer over the years and I feel this book is every bit as good as Cavern, and stronger than "Fortress", which was no dud.