Lowly’s Book Blog

Publicity blurb says stunning sequel. Interpretation – the second book of a trilogy. The likely plot – little action, just a lot of character development and geography. But the tyrant of the title is Alexander the Great. How bad can it be?

Well, firstly the book was not about Alexander. It was about an unknown Athenian named Kineas who happened to be an excellent commander who attracted a powerful band of independent soldiers to is cause. And Kineas’ goal? To follow his girl across the open grasslands of the Russian plains as she rides off to protect her tribal lands from invasion by Alexander’s army. Hopeless cause or what.

Ok, so it took some time and dedication to get through the first 250 pages of the book. Kineas and his girl part company somewhere on the plains, Kineas travels home to his city/state east of Greece and re-establishes order amongst the citizens. But as quick as he can he is resupplied and heading east to the meeting of the tribes. Lots and lots of travel, lots and lots of geography, and lots and lots of campfire conversations (opportunity for character development). Boring!

And then finally Kineas gets to the agreed meeting ground to find that his woman has been captured and imprisoned by Alexander. Finally some action. But the rescue and the big battle scene come and go too quickly. The reader wants some reward for all that endless trudging.

And personally I am mystified about where the story is going now. I never read the first book in the series, so I don’t know if that was about Kineas or Alexander, but book 3 is going to be in trouble if it is going to follow Kineas again.

Maybe my opinion would be different if I had book one. But if you are even tempted by Storm of Arrows on it’s own, take my advice and resist temptation.