Publisher: Del Rey
Author: Greg Keyes
Release Date: 9/27/2011
Pages: 336
MSRP: $14.99 (Paperback), $9.99 (Digital)
Recommended Audience: Young Adult
The Good: Great conclusion, answers a lot of unsolved questions, characters grow on you more, less jarring character jumping, more balanced
The Bad: Ending feels rushed, doesn’t quite feel like the games, some new characters are forgettable
While the first book suffered a bit from confusing descriptions, poor pacing, and just an overall weirdness that you really didn’t find in the games; Lord of Souls tones it down a bit and becomes more coherent. The book takes off from the first with Attrebus and Sul stuck in Oblivion and Annaig and Mere-Glim trying to find a way to destroy the floating city of Umbriel. With this being the conclusion, you will finally get to the climax of the whole event and discover some interesting twists.
The romanticism in the book is still forced because they a brief and don’t go into much detail or become more than a single couple page event. Overall you grow to like the characters a lot more and I found the book paced nicely between action and plot, but it could use more action because the scenes are brief. A lot of questions are answered mainly about Umbriel and the lords within which actually is very interesting and will satisfy your questions.
I did find the end a bit rushed and you never quite find out what happens to everyone in enough depth. There are also a few new characters that get brief chapters of them, but overall you never get attached to them. I also found the jumping around between characters to be more smooth and less jarring. But what I want in the end is something from the games that are in book form and you kind of get that feeling once you finish the series, but I feel it could have been more. The floating city of Umbriel and how it works is kind of a world of its own and I feel Tamriel was only a base for that. Sure names and cities from the game are mentioned, but overall I don’t exactly get the same feeling from the game.
If you love the games you should pick up the first book, but people who read the last go ahead and get this because it’s better and feels more solid, but don’t expect the same adventurous feeling from the games.
