Review - Game of Cages (Twenty Palaces, Book 2) by Harry Connolly (4/5 stars)

This is the second book in the Twenty Palaces series by Harry Connolly.  It was a great read and a fast-paced follow up to the first book, Child of Fire.  In general the book is pretty contained and you wouldn't have to read the first book in the series to enjoy reading this book.

Ray Lily is out of jail and eking out a living working at a grocery store and living in an apartment above his aunt's house.  Things are going pretty well for him, but he misses the action that the Twenty Palaces Society brought to his life.  Then Catherine drops into his life.  She is an investigator for the Twenty Palace Society that was told to use him for backup if she needs it.  There is a mysterious auction happening in a small town and rumors are that it involves a Predator; Catherine's job is to check it out and report back to the Society.  Catherine is dismayed when she finds out that Ray isn't an Apprentice or a Peer but merely Annalise's Wooden Man.  When Catherine and Ray get dragged out of the investigation and into a hunt for the Predator , Ray (his only tricks being his ghost knife and his protection tattoos) ends having to be resourceful in ways he wasn't planning on.

There is a lot I liked about this book.  It is actually very similar to the first book in that it takes place in an isolated small town and Ray ends up hunting another predator.  The action is again very well written and relentless.  This is a book that is hard to put down, it shoves you from one action scene to another and leaves you breathless.  We get to learn more about Ray as a character in this book and a little more about the Twenty Palaces Society as an organization.  We also learn a smidgen more about the other evils in Ray's world.

So overall I enjoyed it, but I have some complaints...which are still the same complaints that I had with the first book.  The action is so dense, we never really get to learn much about the characters or the world.  This was a little less true for this book than the first book; but I still wish we had more face time with the characters in non-life-threatening situations.  Also we get a tiny glimpse into the further structure of the Twenty Palaces Society but not much more than that...I really want to learn more about the Society and meet more people from it.

Catherine was an okay character but kind of weak.  I really missed Annalise and was thrilled when she showed up again towards the end of the book.  Annalise is such a kick-butt character; her and Ray play off of each other really well.  You gain more insight into Ray as a character in this book.  At times he reminds me of Harry Dresden; he has the same dry wit and willingness to get his butt kicked to accomplish what needs doing.  Ray is different in that he has a lot less resources and he is more self-deprecating.

Overall, I enjoyed this installment in the series.  I really, really want to learn more about this world though and with the non-stop action scenes there wasn't time for that in this book.  The plot was tight and the writing incredibly readable and engaging.  I just hope the next book brings us deeper into this world so we can meet more of the Twenty Palaces Society.  I also hope the next book has more Annalise in it; her and Ray make an awesome fighting team.  I am eagerly awaiting the next installment in this series.

This book goes towards the following reading challenge:
- The 100+ Book Reading Challenge

 

Child of Fire (Twenty Palaces, Book 1) by Harry Connolly (4/5 stars)

I got this as an advanced reading copy (ARC) through the Amazon Vine program. This book is being targeted at people who love the Dresden Files and Simon Green's "Secret Histories" series. Given that and the description provided; I was excited to read it. This is the first novel in the Twenty Palaces series; so far three books in this series have been sold. The second one is titled "Game of Cages" and is scheduled for a May 2010 release. It was a very good book.

Ray Lilly has been in prison for a while, he is released to serve as a driver for one of the members of the Twenty Palaces society, Annalise. The Twenty Palaces Society is a group of sorcerers that police rogue sorcerers and destroy any Predators they bring into the normal world. Ray and Annalise are sent to a small town to find out why all of their children are disappearing.

Overall this was a great book. The plot is well-put together, the action scenes are amazing, and the action is non-stop. While Ray and Annalise are not the most likable characters, they are characters that you grow to like as a reader and they have a lot of depth to them. Ray will remind in many ways of Harry Dresden, he takes a lot of beatings and still tries to do what he things is right. The world that this novel takes place in is also fascinating and in this book you don't learn a ton about the Twenty Palaces Society, just enough to make you want to learn more.

There is a lot going on in this book, no one is who they seem to be, and the action scenes fall one into the next. I guess that is my only complaint about this book. The action scenes were basically one on top of the other and they came at you so fast you never had time to catch your breath. I also think that the action scenes were so plentiful that, at times, they prevented us from getting to spend time actually learning more about the characters. I guess I have one other small complaint and that was that this story was very isolated to this one small town. You get glimpses of another world out there, but you never get to really take part in it...hopefully we will get to see more of this interesting world in future books.

I liked this book and am eager to read the next one. I think this has potential to be a really excellent series. A great read. I agree that if you like the Dresden Files, you will probably like this series also.