Number 76- The Society of Blood- Mark Morris

 

I left it far too long to pick up book two in this trilogy, because I could not remember what was going on or who most of the characters were at the start of this one.

Luckily there are some good recaps built in so I caught up fairly rapidly. It would have been nice to have a "previously" chapter at the start of the book though.

At the end of the previous book, Alex Locke was trapped in Victorian London without the magical Obsidian Heart and therefore no way to get home to the 21st century. He has a pair of capable assistants set there with him by a future version of himself and is struggling to care for a girl he rescued from a mad doctor at the end of the first book.

Can he retrieve the heart and return to modern Britain to rescue his captured daughter?

Morris manages to create a fantastic atmosphere through his writing.  the description of the London Smogs was so detailed I cold almost taste it.  

Alex is a good narrator, never making any horror novel choices, opting for the sensible choices uless circumstances dictated otherwise.

I thought there was a little bit of an issue with pacing.  There is an awful lot of contemplation on the nature of paradoxes and what might happen to his future if he changes the past etc. There were times when I wanted him to make a decision without a half a page of what-ifs. That's a minor point though and in general the book kept me wanting to know the answers. 

The final scene of the book definitely left me wanting to read the next book sooner rather than later. He didn't fall foul of the trap of just stopping randomly either.  Several book 2s of trilogies don't bother to close any storylines and just stop. The ending of this was damned good indeed and a fitting cap to the rest of the book.

Highly recommended, but you will definitely need to read the first book first.  This is not a jump in at any point story.