Mass Market, 429 pages
English language
Published Aug. 6, 2009 by Tor.
Sequel to Dragonfly Falling. Achaeos the seer has finally tracked down the stolen Shadow Box. But he has only days before this magical artefact will be lost to him forever. Meanwhile, the Empire's dread forces are mustering for their next great offensive. Stenwold and his followers have only a short time to gather allies before the enemy's soldiers march again - to conquer everything in their path. If Stenwold cannot hold them back, the hated black-and-gold flag will fly over every city in the Lowlands before the year's end. Yet a more insidious threat awaits. Should the Shadow Box fall into the hands of the power-mad Emperor, nothing will save the world form his relentless ambition.
his is an intermediate book in the series, with some extra world building but the plot doesn't move along much.
This series keeps getting better. It was nice to follow the characters to different places. We get to know Solarno (in Spiderlands), Jerez (a black market city, with a mysterious lake) and Szar (a Bee-Kinden city). I loved the Pilots of the Exalsee, an type of aviators club/group with their own code of honor and obviously against The Empire. The plot revolves around the search for the Shadow Box and who gets it. Now that I know who got it, I gotta keep on reading the series to find out what the box actually do!
Very comfort read. Didn't excite me, neither in a bad or unfortunately in a good way. I know the characters from the first few books already. I guess a new one or two showed up. The world events keep moving on.
A good read with a bit more action.
