Publisher: Del Rey

Author: Greg Keyes

Release Date: 9/27/2011

Pages: 336

MSRP: $14.99 (Paperback), $9.99 (Digital)

Recommended Audience: Young Adult

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 it’s brief and doesn’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 is actually 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, 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.