Well crafted escapism, not for everyone
4 stars
Content warning sexual violence mention
The characterization is rather good, and plotting is above average. The world-building feels a bit too familiar to me. We have "humans", dwarves, and elves. The dwarves live under mountains and the elves live in the west. Elves are inherently noble and dwarves secretive and talented metal workers.
On the other hand, there is less "racial determinism" than in some of the fantasy genre. We have had at least half-elf characters ranging from insane villain to cheeky heroic secondary character. There is some depth of character to the antagonists (although there could be more without going full anti-hero). There is no equivalent of "orcs", where being of a certain "race" defines a character (if they can even be called characters) as a villain.
In this second book of the series, I felt like reincarnation was used in a more interesting way, where flashback stories involve previous incarnations of the same characters.
The antogonists (aka the Dark Dweomer) use "sex magick" in a ways that sometimes made me uncomfortable. There is (not too graphical) discussion of sexual violence, and whether by coincidence or not, one of the main antagonists is the only openly queer character, and also a rapist. I would not say it is gratuitous or homophobic in itself, but it does potentially reinforce some pretty vile homophobic stereotypes.
