Following directly on from Dawnthief, the silly-titled Noonshade manages, imo, to be a more exciting installment in the Chronicles of the Raven. The spell that should have saved the day at the end of the first novel has caused an ever bigger problem – will dragons soon be destroying the land? And will there be much of a land left if the invading Wesmen forces succeed?

The weakness here, I would say, is that there are lots of disparate exciting elements. They do form a decent story, but when you start looking at it… I dunno. The fight for the college is shown with great emotional turmoil for those involved, but then the Raven kind of swan in and swoop back out again – it almost jars. Yes, there is good reason, but the real depth of feeling then seems placed in the wrong story segment.

Ack. I shouldn’t be disecting this! It’s fun, it’s pretty well written, and it switches the brain off for a bit.