Synopsis

Tolan has made his way past the first test and continued on to his second year at the academy along with his two friends. No longer plagued by doubts about whether he belongs at the academy, Tolan continues to study and learn how to better connect to his growing magic. While he has grown in power with fire, he still struggles to connect with the other elements and if he can’t figure out a way, his journey at the academy will come to an end.

However, he finds himself once again embroiled in plots much bigger than himself. He discovers a potent artifact that grants him greater connection to the elemental power he wields. But little does he know, the power he has found is being sought by those who seek to destroy the academy and release the elementals. 

 Overall, this book felt nearly identical to the first book in terms of pace, character development and discovery by the main character. Tolan didn’t really develop and grow as a character at all from the first book. The only thing that really changed was his understanding of elementals. Even with that increase in knowledge he still can’t seem to understand what he does.

I felt like the author doesn’t really know how his magic system works. There are parts of the story that feel so contradictory. One minute the main character has this insight, but the very next scene he reverts back to this ignorance of his magic, it’s super hard to follow as a the reader and kills the “magic” of the magic system. 

The character development was incredibly lacking this story. You learn a few things about his past, but his friendships with Ferrah and Jonas haven’t changed at all, he still doesn’t trust them to share his experiences, he hides things from them. Where Jonas was attached to him in the first book, somehow Tolan goes days without seeing his friend and when he finally does there is some basic conversation about what’s been happening. 

Recommendation

For the most part, everything that wasn’t good about the novel writing in the first book has continued on into this book, but without the initial discovery of the world that the reader experiences in the first book. I realized that it isn’t just a trilogy, but is in fact a much larger series. Since I have books 1-3 I’ll probably finish the third book, but I really don’t know if I would continue reading. 

I would not strongly recommend this series. If someone wanting to look at a school based series, they could learn things from this as far as using classes to explain magic and the world, without it feeling as if the author is just info dumping, but that’s probably the only reason I would tell someone. With that being said, other books, like Name of The Wind, do a much better job at the school system, and have a better story.

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