Dragons of the Highlord Skies

Book 2 of the Lost Chronicles was rather disappointing. Rather disappointing coming off from reading book 1. Book 1 made me feel nostalgic; book 2 felt dragging at certain places and didn't make me feel like wanting to keep going.

The second book focuses primarily on Kitiara and Sturm I would say; the former of how she ended up with Lord Soth in her service and the latter of how he ended up with Derek Crownguard and the dragon orb.

I didn't particularly like Kitiara so my enthusiasm was already down. Sure, it was interesting to see her role within the dragon army - but too much was spent her trying to locate Tanis, and way way way too little spent on her locating (and winning over) Lord Soth. It almost felt like it was glossed over fairly quickly. Spend one night at Dargaard Keep? She just used an hour of it. Wasted potential I would say.

As for Sturm's side - well, I disliked Derek Crownguard. Having him so prominent made for rather difficult reading. Brian Donner's reflections and thoughts felt like attempts to excuse Derek's behaviour, but it just didn't click for me.

There are certainly gems to be found, such as filling in some details of the lead-up to Dragons of Winter Night; Laurana's side of the story when the Companions were split up were particularly interesting for me.

Still, I recommend this to those who read the Chronicles, if only to fill up the storyline gaps, especially for those who happen to like Sturm and/or Kitiara. Just don't get your hopes too high as per book 1.