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A review by joeri81
Those Below by Daniel Polansky
3.0
The second book continues in the same way as the first ended: slow, with not much action and the biggest focus on politicking. This is definitely a dissapointment for me. After all the set up in the first book I expected more from this one. Polansky didn't deliver. As it's still on par with the first I finaly gave it 3 stars.
It's not that there's nothing happening; there are some skirmishes and some one-on-one action, but the general feel I have about Polansky's writing is that he wants to avoid the big fights at all cost. So don't expect any big army fights from him. This definitely isn't military fantasy. Maybe the right choice if he isn't comfortabel in writing it, but with several opportunities, it's a shame we don't get any.
This makes that the biggest asset of the two book series remains the worldbuilding and the writing. The characters are decent but nothing more than that either. The potential that was there was again not fully achieved.
Conclusion:
Decent, but not much more than that.
Rating: 7/10
It's not that there's nothing happening; there are some skirmishes and some one-on-one action, but the general feel I have about Polansky's writing is that he wants to avoid the big fights at all cost. So don't expect any big army fights from him. This definitely isn't military fantasy. Maybe the right choice if he isn't comfortabel in writing it, but with several opportunities, it's a shame we don't get any.
This makes that the biggest asset of the two book series remains the worldbuilding and the writing. The characters are decent but nothing more than that either. The potential that was there was again not fully achieved.
Conclusion:
Decent, but not much more than that.
Rating: 7/10