The Words of Kings and Prophets

 As a continuation of the first book, this functions perfectly well. It focuses a lot more on intrigue and developing the established characters, which makes for a somewhat less action-packed read but still entirely fun read, in my opinion. Reading how Gormflaith and F??dla develop was absolutely fun: Gormflaith still has more layers than F??dla, but F??dla experiences some solid character development in this book, which is where much of the fun reading her derives. 
We also get Colmon as a narrator in this one. In the last book he was a somewhat minor character, but this time around he gets narrator status and it looks like he???ll be developed into another protagonist for the third book. I look forward to it, not least because his perspective is so different from F??dla???s and Gormflaith???s.    There was also an interesting dialogue in this book about oppressive systems, and how it can be hard to dismantle such systems when one is benefitting from them. It???s only a moment in the book, but it does address an element of the previous book (and the actual historical milieu in which this series is set) that I think other readers wanted the author to deal with a bit more explicitly. I can???t say for absolute certain if it was handled well, but I will say that it gave me food for thought, especially when thinking about that element in the context of the history of the period, and what certain characters then promised to do about it. 
I think that the main gripe I have about this is that it really feels like a transition book, moving characters so they???re in specific places (literally and metaphorically speaking) as preparation for a big finale or big change of events in the next book. This is just a small complaint though, as I liked the book regardless, but it???s definitely got that vibe. 
Overall, this was a solid continuation of the previous book. Characters grow in their own ways, and the plot continues to be a fun ride. I???m looking forward to seeing how Colmon steps up in the next book in the series (along with another character I won't mention because spoilers). Still, this does feel a lot like a book that???s meant to put particular characters in specific places in preparation for something big going down, so readers looking for something a little more action-packed might not be entirely happy with this one.