By Ernie Laurence, Jr.

A Review by

If you’ve missed my review of Islands of Loar: Book 1, I strongly recommend you go back and read that before venturing into my review of the second establishment of this ambitious world building.

Though Book 2 picks up right where Book 1 left off, it’s nice to see Mr. Laurence Jr. opening with a thorough summary of the events to bring us up to speed. It helps tremendously due to the gigantic proportions of this universe and all of the characters involved in it! You cannot read this and be distracted or take too long a break in between reading sessions because there is a lot to dig into.

How does Book 2 differ from Book 1, if at all?

1) We see all the different groups of characters we’ve been following from the beginning finally coming together: old friends reunited and new acquaintances forming new friendships.

2) We finally get introduced to that group of humanoids who embraced technology and thus we get to witness the ‘golem’ (basically a remote controlled super robot) and a bona fide spaceship! Yes, boys and girls, elves in spaceships!

Speaking of ‘technology’, one of the main themes in this story is the constant attempt of the authorities of Loar to ban the use and embrace of technology, which sets in motion violent persecutions of the bards. Against these persecutions, we find one of our heroes-Doogan-who decides to fight against them, even befriending some of the bards themselves.

Once again, I’m impressed by what the author is accomplishing here, constantly building new paths in the plot line, constantly introducing new characters, but without letting the whole thing collapse under its own weight!

Islands of Loar is exactly what the fantasy genre needs right now. We all loved Lord of The Rings, The Legend of Drizzt, and Dragonlance, but it is time to take it to new grounds while remaining truthful to the essence of the genre.