I enjoyed the first book of this series, probably because it was a new fantasy world to figure out. Somehow this second book was less exciting. Oh, lots of stuff happened, but it loses its savour when the main characters never make a wrong decision. And they figure things out much too quickly and easily. The Marat have known about the parasitic vord for generations, but all of a sudden Bernard and Amara figure out how they work and how to kill them within hours of their first engagement. It doesn't give the Maray much credit despite the fact that they are otherwise depicted as intelligent.
It's not just the adults—Tavi is so uber-responsible and ulta-moral that he is downright unbelievable. A kid in his teens facing down ambassadors, military leaders, and even chiding the First Lord. Plus he is apparently acting incompetent to hide his secret duties from his friends and classmates. He is just too perfect, able to take on whatever comes his way and triumph.
What mystifies me is that the Harry Dresden series predates Codex Alera, and Harry is far from a perfect character. It's not like Butcher doesn't know how to craft a realistically flawed protagonist. Dresden was interesting, even when his some of his attitudes drove me nuts. Tavi gets self righteous and kinda boring pretty much immediately. This harks back to the early days of fantasy, on par with works like Edding's Belgariad or Feist's Riftwar Saga, much less morally ambiguous than we are used to now.
The redeeming features are the relationships. Bernard, as a powerful furycrafter, is expected to produce as many children as possible. Amara, we are led to believe, has been wounded and is now unable to conceive. But they are so besotted with one another that I had to cheer for them. And of course there's Tavi and his Marat gal, Kitai. She'll educate him in many ways! Three cheers for Kitai!
Book number 471 of my Science Fiction and Fantasy Reading Project
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