A review by bookwormdaydreamer
Time's Demon: Book II of the Islevale Cycle by D.B. Jackson
4.0
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to NetGalley and Angry Robot Books.
Time's Demon is the second book in D.B. Jackson's The Islevale Cycle and follows Tobias Doljan and Mara who are stuck about fourteen years in the past and have now aged and must take care of the princess Sofya after an assassination which took the lives of her entire family. Being the last of her royal line, Tobias must protect the princess if she is ever to reclaim her legacy- while being essentially a teen in the body of a grown man.
This book contains a recap of what happened in the previous book which I find to be a really welcome and helpful thing to add in fantasy books. I really wish that more books have this feature besides the also very helpful glossary because fantasy books tend to be very dense when it comes to detail and it can get hard to remember certain events that happened. That said, I very much liked that this was present and it helped me a lot.
Time's Demon is considerably slower than the first book although there were still a lot of things happening here. I attribute the slowness to the fact that there's a lot of backstory concerning the villain here and I liked how this book actually fleshes out his character. In fact, through the course of this book, he becomes almost like a secondary protagonist as we learn of his motivations, his past life, his current life, etc. I like it when antagonists are given more depth and I think it was handled quite well here.
Meanwhile, Tobias and Mara now have to deal with having to become accustomed to their new life and adjust to growing up too quickly. They have a lot of years lost between the two of them, years that are crucial to growth and maturity so they really did have to grow up fast. In this book, they had to conceal their and Sofya's identities and play the part of a loving family. I think this part was pretty adorable and they do grow a lot here as characters.
I still do kind of side-eye Tobias and Mara's relationship because in my mind, they're kind of like children who has to play house or there will be deadly consequences. I still get whiplash because of how fast they have to grow up. I do understand that because of the consequences of time travel in this series, they cannot go back to being kids and are stuck as adults. Still, I can't shake off my discomfort although it does kind of make sense for them to fall in love.
Droe the time demon or Tirribin also gets a lot of screentime in this book. Due to her obsession with Tobias and the concept of love and desire, she strikes a deal which leads to her essentially transcending what she was before. She also exhibits a lot of character growth in this book, especially towards the end where she comes to terms with what she is and also where she stands with her emotions and stuff. I don't want to spoil anymore but I really enjoyed her character arc.
The negative thing that I can really say about this book is that it does feel like it suffers from second book syndrome where it serves to get the characters from one point to another. It's a lot of backstories getting told- flipping back and forth between past and present-day narration, Tobias and Mara avoiding been found and getting assassinated...and Droe. Still, it wasn't a bad to read about and I did enjoy it. I think it sets up the next book and I'm looking forward to reading about what's going to happen next.
Overall, I can recommend Time's Demon if you liked the first book. It expounds on a lot of character history, builds up the character arcs better, and expands the scope of the story more. I give this a 3.75 out of 5 stars, rounded up to 4 stars.
This review is also on The Bookworm Daydreamer
Time's Demon is the second book in D.B. Jackson's The Islevale Cycle and follows Tobias Doljan and Mara who are stuck about fourteen years in the past and have now aged and must take care of the princess Sofya after an assassination which took the lives of her entire family. Being the last of her royal line, Tobias must protect the princess if she is ever to reclaim her legacy- while being essentially a teen in the body of a grown man.
This book contains a recap of what happened in the previous book which I find to be a really welcome and helpful thing to add in fantasy books. I really wish that more books have this feature besides the also very helpful glossary because fantasy books tend to be very dense when it comes to detail and it can get hard to remember certain events that happened. That said, I very much liked that this was present and it helped me a lot.
Time's Demon is considerably slower than the first book although there were still a lot of things happening here. I attribute the slowness to the fact that there's a lot of backstory concerning the villain here and I liked how this book actually fleshes out his character. In fact, through the course of this book, he becomes almost like a secondary protagonist as we learn of his motivations, his past life, his current life, etc. I like it when antagonists are given more depth and I think it was handled quite well here.
Meanwhile, Tobias and Mara now have to deal with having to become accustomed to their new life and adjust to growing up too quickly. They have a lot of years lost between the two of them, years that are crucial to growth and maturity so they really did have to grow up fast. In this book, they had to conceal their and Sofya's identities and play the part of a loving family. I think this part was pretty adorable and they do grow a lot here as characters.
I still do kind of side-eye Tobias and Mara's relationship because in my mind, they're kind of like children who has to play house or there will be deadly consequences. I still get whiplash because of how fast they have to grow up. I do understand that because of the consequences of time travel in this series, they cannot go back to being kids and are stuck as adults. Still, I can't shake off my discomfort although it does kind of make sense for them to fall in love.
Droe the time demon or Tirribin also gets a lot of screentime in this book. Due to her obsession with Tobias and the concept of love and desire, she strikes a deal which leads to her essentially transcending what she was before. She also exhibits a lot of character growth in this book, especially towards the end where she comes to terms with what she is and also where she stands with her emotions and stuff. I don't want to spoil anymore but I really enjoyed her character arc.
The negative thing that I can really say about this book is that it does feel like it suffers from second book syndrome where it serves to get the characters from one point to another. It's a lot of backstories getting told- flipping back and forth between past and present-day narration, Tobias and Mara avoiding been found and getting assassinated...and Droe. Still, it wasn't a bad to read about and I did enjoy it. I think it sets up the next book and I'm looking forward to reading about what's going to happen next.
Overall, I can recommend Time's Demon if you liked the first book. It expounds on a lot of character history, builds up the character arcs better, and expands the scope of the story more. I give this a 3.75 out of 5 stars, rounded up to 4 stars.
This review is also on The Bookworm Daydreamer