Abyssal Warriors: Blood Wars Trilogy, Book #02

Definitely a great fantasy epic and one of my personal favorites, The Blood Wars Trilogy-Blood Hostages, Abyssal Warriors, and Planar Powers, brings to life the story of Aereas and Nina, two cousins, and their adventures in the "multiverse" that is the World of Planescape. The books are so incredibly well written that the reader feels that they have been transported to another universe and are actually present among the characters, seeing what they see, feeling what they feel, sensing what they sense. The author has done a FANTASTIC job of both acquiring vast knowledge relevant to the Planes as well as presenting this material efficiently and successfully! His solid grasp of factual detail makes him very capable of providing the necessary background needed to carry out the very difficult task of writing Planescape novels, which is something often missing from the work of many Fantasy authors. JR King has truly outdone himself and has presented us with a masterpiece of literature the likes of which we have seen only in JRR Tolkien's work and in authors Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's Dragonlance Chronicles and Legends trilogies as well as RA Salvatore's Icewind Dale and Dark Elf Trilogies. Love, fiends, bravery, magic, swordfights and battles of epic proportion are all about. A great trilogy indeed and a "must read" along with Pages of Pain, sadly, the only other novel written in the Planescape setting.

There is an interesting twist in this, the second book of the trilogy. The heroine of the first book has gone mad. Because she has not changed that much, I found myself still rooting for her, although she is now the "bad guy". Another aspect of the book I liked was the character Phaeton, who is basically an angel. Through Phaeton, we see how sometimes beings of "pure good" can sometimes do evil, and how "right" can sometimes be wrong. Overall, this book was a welcome and refreshing change from the formulaic "action movie" first book.

I have to say that i was surprised with this book, the first of the trilogy (Blood Hostages) was for me a real let down, i was expecting something more from planscape, which i recieved a hundred fold from Abyssal Warriors. Nina's descent into madness is the most exciting aspect of this book supported by Aereas' quest to find Nina and eventually stop her from (i dont want to spoil it). I guess to better understand this book it is nessesary to read Blood Hostages, it gives you the background info that is not a necessity but is helpful. A climaxic ending that just knaws at you to read the final novel (which i had to wait 2 years to read because of the Wizards of the Coast buying TSR thing).

This book rules. It is the second of a 3 book trilogy, however, it isn't as weak in content as most middle books in a series. King did an awsome job with catching readers up on what happened in the first book without giving too much away or spending too much time dwelling on it for those of us who did read it. And the content of the book itself is a work of art. It had me on the edge frequently when things began heating up toward the climax. I felt I was with Areas and Nina for their entire lives. -Chris Shannon

This book rules. It is the second of a 3 book trilogy, however, it isn't as weak in content as most middle books in a series. King did an awsome job with catching readers up on what happened in the first book without giving too much away or spending too much time dwelling on it for those of us who did read it. And the content of the book itself is a work of art. It had me on the edge frequently when things began heating up toward the climax. I felt I was with Areas and Nina for their entire lives.