Rex Mundi Volume 2: The River Underground (2nd Edition)

This entire series is great. I love the pacing and writing. The subject matter is intriguing and the characters are interesting and compelling.

The second volume of Rex Mundi draws Julien deeper and deeper into dangerous territory. The Inquisition is watching him closely, and it is a matter of time before they do something. He discovers more clues as to what is going on, and realises that there is a political movement at the heart of it, that wants power and war.

Arvid Nelson, Rex Mundi: The River Underground (Dark Horse, 2005) It took two years after my library acquired the first volume of this series for them to get the second. I've been waiting on tenterhooks (whatever tenterhooks may be-- they're not too comfortable, though) the whole time. They finally got, it, and I snapped it up. Two years disappeared immediately, and I was right back into the story as if no time had passed at all. Nelson reveals a good deal more of where he's going with this plot in The River Underground, and while there were certain times when I smelled a distinct odor of Dan Brown, I'm more than willing to give Nelson the benefit of the doubt; his characters are much more believable, and they don't grind the plot to a halt to discourse endlessly on subject we all know about anyway. (Nelson makes use of the daily-newspaper convention for relating the background stuff, as well as injecting a few amusing moments now and then. References to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton sit alongside references to Opus Dei and Napoleon. How cool is that?) I'm waiting for volume 3 now. My library swears it won't take them two years to get this one. Back onto my tenterhooks, I guess. *** ½

Very good script and will not let you sleep- you will want to finish.