A Torch Against the Night

Reread June 2018: This is my reread update since it has been a while since I first read this, and I wanted to refresh myself now that the third book is coming out. Let me say that time has not aged this book at all. It is just as fun as it was the first time around. Another sign that I really liked this book was that I kept thinking about these characters when I was not even near the book. That shows the vividness of each of these characters. I stick by my rating last time, and I can't wait for the third book to come out!

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Well, I'm glad I read this book when I did. Of late, my reading of books this month hasn't resulted in what one would call an awesome reading experience. With two books being put on my Could Not Finish shelf, and only one getting a four out of five, I thought this month was going to be a dud. Then I saw that I could rent A Torch Against the Night and I had hopes. For those of you who don't know, this novel's predecessor An Ember in the Ashes was my favorite book of 2015, so I was really excited to see what this novel was going to do. Did it improve on the faults of the previous book, and give me things I wanted to see? Yes, yes it did, and it was awesome!

I think my biggest complaint with the first book was how the magic system works, and who the bad guy was. Let me say, without spoiling anything, that that has been greatly expanded upon here, and it something that takes up a majority of the book. It is well deserved, and appreciated.

The characters all get expanded upon here, and are, if it's possible, even more awesome than in the previous books. One standout is Helene Aquilla, who receives tons of character development through her POV. We see her battle not only against impossible decisions and villains of the book, but also against her own internal emotions in a very satisfying way. Elias and Laia are also awesome in this novel, with both of them facing impossible choices and tasks ahead of them. Along with their character development, we also are introduced to Elias' family from his time with the local tribes people. This adds a ton of depth to him, and allows for us to explore an interesting culture.

And the plot was excellent too, in terms of how heart pounding awesome it was! I loved this plot and it worked well for me. One thing I did see mentioned in other reviews is that this plot tends to deviate from the ‘main' plot somewhat for no real reason...only until the end when it is brought up again, which I suppose could annoy some people, but I think was just fine for me. Then there was the villains in this. We have, of course, Elias' mother, who runs Blackcliff Military Academy, Marcus, the new Emperor, and a Prison Warden. All of them plan to make our main characters lives a living hell, and they do just that. This plot was very well done and an excellent read. I also really enjoyed listening to this on audio, with the narrator's doing an excellent job.

In short, I have to say that the high expectations I had for this book were well received and this author has done well with this series, so far. I will most definitely be reading the next book, and it's publication date cannot come fast enough. I give this book a five out of five.