Reviews with content warning for Violence - The Battle for Skandia

I remembered this book being better than the Icebound land (and in terms of plot it certainly is!) but this time round I found it lacking somewhat in emotion. This may come across as a bit negative for a 4 star review and this book is pretty good it's just not as good as I remembered and I'm sad about it.

The first 50 or so pages were pretty good and the Will-Halt reunion was nice but if you compare it to the boar incident in book one it is pretty disappointing.

Then there is a middle section where its just Will and Horace training and Evanlyn being a loose end. This part was not very fun at all because there is a very subtle love triangle that I previously hadn't noticed between the three which mainly consists of people eyeing each other jealously and huffiness and Will making a "sigh WOMEN" comment that had my toes curling. (Also immediately after making this comment another girl flirts with him and he's like 'AW YEA') I am aware that Will is somewhere in his mid to late teens and therefore an awkward mess however this kind of comment makes me want to smack people and I am annoyed at Flanagan for putting it there. It also feels really out of character for Will to say because he isn't generally like that and all Evanlyn did was go elsewhere because she was bored?? Is this mini-rant a bit much for a one word comment? Possibly but I also don't care because it really annoyed me (though I am trying to bear in mind that the book was written 15 years ago and things have changed a lot).

Then there is the last section with the battle. I don't particularly like battle scenes but this one was one of the better ones I have read and is mainly focused on the impact of a single group on the battle which I think made it more interesting than usual battle scenes.

My earlier comment about the lack of emotional stakes mainly arises due to the way the Temujai are written - out of all the antagonists of the books so far the Temujai have had the most potential for emotional stakes given

Spoiler

Halt's past links with them and his betrayal

. However, the Temujai's extreme distain for showing emotion (I am British and I think these guys were unhealthily repressed) and even more extreme superiority complex regarding anyone who is not one of them they are very distant. Also a high proportion of the times the main characters interact with the Temujai are played for comedy (and it is quite funny) which only decreases the emotional stakes further.

Now for the best bits. By the far best subplot in the book is Halt's status as an exile. Halt is so dramatic about the whole thing,

Spoiler

insisting he be the one to tell Will and then he just never brings it up, even when it would be sensible to and eventually Will finds out anyway.

It's especially funny seeing as he is supposed to be the sensible adult of the group! The scene when they arrive at

Spoiler

Castle Araluen

was also great and was extremely wholesome. I have no teeth now!

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