This is the second volume of “The Swans’ War”, and a sequel to Russell’s
The One Kingdom which I reviewed last week. I wish I could say
that I enjoyed it as much as its predecessor, but I didn’t. It was
extremely slow-paced, and the big climax was so long in arriving that I
was rather indifferent to it when it finally straggled in.

However, in the interests of fairness, I should point out that I
read most of this while sitting and waiting for my flight, and then waiting
for my flight to be cancelled, and then waiting for my hotel voucher and
rebooked flight. And all this while not having had a good nights sleep
in almost a week.

So, all things considered, I’m going to give Russell the benefit of the
doubt, and buy the next volume when it comes out in paperback.
The Isle of Battle is quite possibly better than it seemed, and
then again it might simply be suffering from middle-book-syndrome. We’ll
see when the time comes.