The Emerald Cavern

After years of waiting for the Jordan series to end I gave up. The last book was a complete loser. A friend of mine previously gave me a copy of "The Fifth Ring" which has been sitting in my "to be read" pile and languishing there. Anyway, I gave it a try and it blew me away. Having fallen fell in love with the book I quickly checked the author's web site to see what else he had written (the site rocks by the way), and was pleased to find the sequel was already out."The Emerald Cavern" is a fine book and picks up a little after "The Fifth Ring" concludes. I thought this book was extremely well written. I enjoyed the humor as well as the court intrigues and mystery. I thought the relationships between Father Thomas and Teanna d'Elso and between Mathew and Teanna were extremely interesting. There's a lot percolating beneath the surface. Also, the more I read about Gawl the more I like him."The Emerald Cavern" has a number of aspects to it that are essential to a good novel: Solid writing; excellent characters; and a plot that keeps you hooked. I highly recommend this book.

I highly recommend this book. I found it very entertaining and a quick read. The pages just flew by. I felt myself drawn into the story right away. The descriptions were vivid, but not overblown. Personally, I thought the characters were quite easy to relate to.I'd like to know where the author gets some of his ideas, because I thought they were great. This is a wonderful story that I'll read again and again as the years go by.

Mitchell Graham has a way of weaving a story that just keeps you coming back and back. This is his second book in The Fifth Ring series. It was a great follow-up. I thoroughly enjoyed it and am anxiously awating the concluding novel.All of the characters were easy to relate to and just plain fun. You could read this as a stand-alone novel, but I reccommend getting The Fifth Ring first. Easily one of my top ten favorites now.

"The Emerald Cavern" is Mitchell Graham's sequel to the highly popular "Fifth Ring" that came out early last year. Both my roommate and I read it and we came to the conclusion...this is a polished character driven story with a fun plot. It would certainly help if you've read the first book in the series, but the author brings you up to speed so quickly, it's not a necessity. The reader will find themselves rooting for the characters through all their trials and tribulations. While I'm on the subject of characters, I should point out that even the villians and minor ones have a way of getting to you. Teanna d'Elso, Father Thomas, and Gawl could easily carry books by themselves.I enjoyed the faster pace of this book, as did Sherri (though she didn't read the first one) and found myself coming back to it over and over again when I should have been working. In fact it kept me up until the wee hours of the morning. I completely agree with the Klausner review that said Mitchell Graham is a superb story teller. He is...period. He pulls the reader right in and keeps them there. The world he has created is unique which makes the job a lot easier.I strongly disagree with the comment by the Publishers Weekly person. This book *is* every bit as entertaining as "The Fifth Ring." While some of the charm is gone, this occurs when and author is cobbling a fantasy world together, I didn't suffer from it here. Read both book ins sequence and you'll see what I mean. Yes, there are a lot of characters, both minor and major, but I had absolutely no trouble in following the plot or political interplays that were going on.My Verdict: The Emerlad Cavern is a winnner that will appeal to a wide variety of both fantasy and mystery lovers. It's a wonderful follow-up to the start of the series. Hopefully, author Graham won't drag his out forever.My only compliant is that now I'll have to wait for the conclusion of the story. If Graham's publisher has a brain in their head, they push it out the front door before the villagers burn down the castle.

Nobody knows much about the Ancients except that their minds were so powerful that they had the mental ability to change energy into matter. However with all their power they still ended up destroying themselves. All that is left of them are some ancient ruins and eight rose gold rings that give the wearer the ability to use their minds in ways similar to the ancients. Thanks to the rose gold ring that Matthew Lewin wore, he was able to stop Karas Duren and his minions, the Orlocks, from conquering his country.Matthew is in Sennia where King Gaul and his counterpart in Elgaria try to keep the ring wearer out of jail for killing the man who murdered his father. While at the palace, statues come to life and try to kill Matthew. He reasons that an unknown enemy has a ring and his fears are confirmed when the ring the church was guarding turns up missing. When traitors to the crown plan to overthrow the king, the only hope to see justice prevail rests on Matthew's shoulders, a burden that would break a lesser man.Matthew has matured from the time he first used the ring to stop a war (see THE FIFTH RING). His current trials and tribulations in THE EMERALD CAVERN make him even stronger and wiser than he was before he reached Sennia. There is plenty of action but author Mitchell Graham doesn't ignore his characters. They are well-developed and easily understood, heroes and villains alike. It is going to be hard to wait for the next book in this trilogy because there are questions the audience wants answered now. Mr. Graham is a superb storyteller with a colorful imagination.Harriet Klausner