Trail of the Huntress   by Mark Robson Sword Publishing, 2001, 319 pages, ISBN 0 9538190 1 9

How easy was it to get stuck into this book?
This book is a very exciting book, and is written much in the style of the first book (The Forging of the Sword) and I can not say that the sequel is worse than the first book. I would recommend that you do read the first book to start with though, as a lot of the story here reflects on that. It was for me, a rare thing to find a boring spot.

Who are the main characters?
The main characters are almost certainly Calvyn, who has joined the army of Thrandor (the place where the book is set) as a way of life, and Jenna, who was trained along with Calvyn, and is under Calvyn's command in the army. The story follows Jenna more than it does Calvyn, in her dangerous quest. Other characters in the story are The Lords of the Inner Eye, a group of powerful Shandese magicians, Selkor, one of the most powerful magicians of Shandar and the surrounding lands and Demarr, a ruthless and tyrannical former Earl who was the one who killed Calvyn's family with his army of Terachites.

What's the storyline?
After a huge war at Mantor, a place in Thrandor, the Terachites are finally defeated by the Thrandorians, but another neighbouring land, Shandar, uses this advantage to send in its entire army, the Thrandorians are in no state to fight, and in addition to that reports are coming in that the Shandese are using magicians to confuse and kill the Thrandorians. It is while this war is going on that Calvyn's squad are ambushed, and Calvyn is taken captive. When he wakes up he finds that he is among The Lords of the Inner Eye, who plan to use him as a military leader to defeat the Thrandorians, however, he is powerless to do anything, and the Lords summon the most dangerous demon alive to consume his soul. This they do, and he is given the new name Lord Shanier. It is this that leads Jenna on a highly dangerous quest, she must find and kill the demon before it decides to go back to Hell with Calvyn's soul. Calvyn is meanwhile becoming more and more ruthless and is threatening to take over the whole of Shandar.

How's it written?
There are no hard words in the book. It is written in a very interesting style, with many twists and turns, and a complicated plot.

Other books by the same author that Tim knows about?
The first and third books in The Darkweaver Legacy: Forging the Sword and The First Sword (not yet published).

The overall verdict is
A cool-read

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