Book Review: Spellbound by Blake Charlton

This is the second book in the Spellwright trilogy by Blake Charlton. This continues the story 10 years after the prior book with some new characters. Here's the Goodreads blurb:

Francesca DeVega is a healer in the city of Avel, composing magical sentences that close wounds and disspell curses. But when a newly dead patient sits up and tells her that she must flee the infirmary or face a fate worse than death, Francesca finds herself in the middle of a game she doesn't understand―one that ties her to the notorious rogue wizard Nicodemus Weal and brings her face-to-face with demons, demigods, and a man she hoped never to see again.

Ten years ago, Nico escaped Starhaven Academy, leaving behind his failed life, in which he was considered disabled and felt useless. Now, in Spellbound, he's starting fresh, using his newfound gifts in the dark Chthonic languages to pursue the emerald that holds his birthright. Unfortunately, he can't escape the chaos of his old life. His mentor suffers from an incurable curse, agents of the fabled Halcyon hunt him day and night, pieces of Francesca's story don't add up, and the prophesized War of Disjunction looms on the horizon.

Nico and Francesca don't know it yet, but they are going to have to fit together the pieces of an age-old puzzle and discover the demon's darkest secret….

Read on for my spoiler-free review.

Overall Impression

An exciting continuation of the Spellwright saga with even more magical text to learn about. Despite the time jump, it doesn't feel too removed from the prior novel and we still benefit from getting new characters. The plot and characters are improved and the setting is interesting. The only thing that I think may drag it down is some forays into political intrigue that feel half-baked.

Plot

The story takes place a decade after the events from Spellwright. Nicodemus and Shannon on the run with their kobold allies and are slowing working to hinder the demon Typhon's machinations. The War of Disjunction has not officially broken out, at least not publicly, but there is a lot going on. The plot puts Nicodemus on the backseat as it focuses on a new character, Francesca, a cleric in the city of Avel. There are plenty of mysteries in this book that reach some interesting conclusions near the end, but overall the book is relatively fast paced and engaging. I felt this one had a better ending, since the prior book didn't seem to wrap up at the right place.

Characters

Nicodemus is still a mayor character here, but a lot more time is spent with Francesca. She is a cleric, which is to say a wizard trained in Numinous and Magnus but that focuses on healing and medicine. When attacked by the demon's agents she has to team up with Cyrus, an old lover and heirophant wizard in Avel, and seek out Nicodemus to learn what is going on. Francesca, or Fran, is a particularly complicated character with a bit of mystery tied to her.

Setting / World Building

The story primarily takes place in the city of Avel, which is surrounded by a dangerous savanna full of lycanthropes (werewolves). In the city, a special type of wizard known as hierophants use a version of the magical language to spellwritten cloth and fabrics to make kites they fly around in. It makes for a very interesting visual of people flying around in kites and airships powered by this magic. In addition to them, we still have the classic wizards, the druids who write into wood, and the highsmiths who write into metal. And as we learned in the prior book, there is also Language Prime- the language of living things themselves, which characters like Nicodemus can see and alter. Plus we also have gods and how they connect to the magical languages and the people that worship them is an interesting topic.

The weakest part, however, is the half-hearted dives into the political situation. It's in the background for certain aspects, but never quite as clear as other books I've read. The various nations, their allegiances, the gods, and whether they follow a demon or not are all a bit muddled. As a backdrop, it's a bit more complex than it needed to be, and as a focus it doesn't get the time it deserved. For the most part, I ignored the major aspects of this and I think most readers would do the same.

Final Thoughts

This was a good book, generally an improvement over the first one. The characters and plot are good and the setting is very interesting, though it seemed like it was trying to do a little too much at times. Overall, I had a good time reading it and look forward to the conclusion in Spellbreaker.