Basically a long training montage.

Though this installment was still engaging, the whole book amounts to a long training montage, and the actual story is not advanced much. It would have been ok if the story then went on for a few hours to really show how the training has changed Arthur and how that will affect the war, but it doesn’t. As a result the runtime feels short because not much really happens to advance the plot.

I don’t really want to include even minor spoilers, although given the nature of this book it wouldn’t spoil much. In light of this, I will say that I don’t necessarily object to the inclusion of all this training and learning. However, i think it either should have been condensed, or a lot more should have been revealed story-wise. There was a lot of opportunity to add more information about the world, the different races, the magic system and the enemies. Unfortunately the author just kept having characters refuse to answer or explain things fully to Arthur, because the trainers are arrogant, or aloof, but mostly just “because reasons.”

In the end, while this book was entertaining, and I enjoyed listening to it, I hope the next one will move the plot forward a bit more. And more importantly, I hope it will give the characters that aren’t Arthur and Tessiah better reasons for withholding information than, because it creates suspense and mystery.