The Anvil of Souls by
Joshua C. Cook
My rating:
3 of 5 stars
The Cycle Continues
The Anvil of Souls is the second book in The Forgemaster Cycle and follows Blood of a Fallen God. As a sequel review, there could be spoilers from the first book. If you haven't read the first book, stop reading this and go get it – it's excellent, and I highly recommend it.
Given that I loved the first book, I'm sorry to say that the second book of the cycle is as good as the first book. It's not bad, but overall it falls short of the first. Is it worth reading? Sure, it is. Despite its flaws, it is a continuation of the first book and does a great job of exploring the world of the Forgemaster and detailing the unique history and lore. I haven't read the third book yet, but this one seems like it's a segue into a final volume. And I do plan on continuing to the third book.
At the start of the story, there was a setup for what I thought was a great plot: William was set to return to Ture, clean the corruption from the church of Amder, and take his position as Forgemaster. I was excited to return to the mix of city-based intrigue and action of the first book, so I was pretty disappointed when William suddenly changed his mind and traveled in the opposite direction. Once it gets going, the plot doesn't have a good focus from chapter to chapter, and most of the book is just a chronicle of the journey. There were a few trials, tribulations, and mysteries that are expected of such a narrative, but no real substance for a big chunk of the book. It does have a significant, exciting build-up at the very end, but I wish the trip there had a bit more to keep me interested in where the plot was going. This may be no issue if you are a fan of the style, but for me, it was only just enough to keep my attention.
But the central protagonists were the real disappointment in the book. The story focuses on the travels of William, Myriam, and Regin. I liked all three characters in the first book, but after the events in the first book, they seemed to have become dense, obtuse, and oblivious. Are you familiar with the cliche horror scene where you want to scream something like "DON'T GO DOWN INTO THE DARK, SCARY BASEMENT!"? I wanted to do the same thing to those three because they were constantly acting irrational or overreacting. And William, who is the mortal representative of a god that he resurrected, is an impotent hero, continually questioning and doubting himself to the point you want to slap him, hoping that he'll snap out of his funk.
Despite any misgivings I have about the plot or characters, the narration is excellent. Moore's performance was one of the reasons my interest stayed high enough to enjoy the book. The voices were distinct, the dialog was interesting, and the tone was well matched to the scenes' pacing and writing style.
Special thanks to Eric Bryan Moore, who provided me with a copy of this book at my request.
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