Exactly what I’m looking for in a fantasy novel.

I waffled between giving this a 4 or 5 star, but didn’t have much of an emotional reaction? Still excellent work. Excellent work.

The action was excellent, especially the moments of everything falling into place, of high points and victory scraped by, of cleverness and guts. I enjoyed seeing Ed’s situation and dungeon grow and develop. The audiobook performance was just as on point–Annie Ellicott doing all the female cast was great.

The only real (minor) flaws was that Alder isn’t that great of a character, he doesn’t really add anything. Which is what bothers him in the story, yes, but that doesn’t make it great. On the audio side, Ellicott’s herbalist has too thick of an accent, it was barely decipherable.

Everything great about the first book and more. If you liked the first, I can’t see a reason to not like this one. I will definitely pick up the third installment.