The second book of The Wings of War by Bryce O’Connor was actually better than the first book. This one is set in the North and Raz has to battle in a gladiator arena. Spoilers from here on out.
The book starts with Raz escaping to the North where he runs into a small girl. She is running from bounty hunters who have her brother. Raz steps in and saves the children. He learns they have a debt on their head and are being forced to fight in the Arena. He goes to the city and makes a deal with the chairman to fight instead. The chairman agrees since Raz will attract bounty hunters from all over to collect on the huge sum from the South for his head.
Eventually Raz runs into Talo Brahnt, who is now the High Priest of Cyurgi’Di. The priest is the one who shut down the Arena (and he was also once a great gladiator himself). This begins a cool relationship between the two characters.
In the first book, Raz’s family is murdered, but it was pretty telegraphed. You knew it had to happen if Raz was to become this great sellsword. However, I did not see the deaths of Aron & Luskie (not sure if I am spelling their names correctly). Once Tern brings the box into the center of the Arena, I figured out what was inside, but I definitely did not see Luskie’s death coming. It actually brought a tear to my eye.
The melee was an incredible fight scene. I only have one complaint, during the battle, it seems like O’Connor lost track of things. At some point he says that Raz picks his spear up from the ground, but if you go back, it was not on the ground, it was sticking out of an enemy (he later mentions that). It was a little confusing. If I were giving Bryce some advice (obviously no one wants advice from me, who can barely write a blog post without screwing it up), I would recommend acting out the fight scenes. Either after to make sure it makes sense. Or do it before, and write down the actions.
I look forward to the third book and I am curious to find out what has been happening in the south. Did that assassin ever learn how to regain her magic from the Grandmother? What about Raz’s biological mother? The Queen of the Atherians (spelling?), what is her plan and when will that thread come back into play?
