Paksenarrion is back!  Not only has Orbit released a compendium volume of the trilogy The Deed of Paksenarrion (Amazon US || UK) but here is a sequel to that highly entertaining series, featuring the lady herself.  Not that this is a story about her; that has already been told.  Instead Kieri Phelan takes center stage, as he is the duke and leader of the mercenary band no longer... he is actually king of Lyona.  This is a place where humans and elves live together (not terribly amicably, as can be imagined) and he has to get the kingdom back into shape, for there are dangers lurking beyond the borders.  Meanwhile, Dorrin Verrakai is the new Duke Verrakai and has some terrors of her own to face.

Now read on!  I take my hat off to anybody who can pack a big story into a trilogy of very modest-length books and have never forgotten reading the original trilogy.  Here Ms Moon shows her talent for creating well rounded, believable characters in a tangible setting with plenty of history and color.  It takes up where the original series left off, but to help out there is a brief synopsis of the adventures of the principal charactersOath of Fealtya good touch.  Also praiseworthy is the fact that the two main characters are both middle aged, and therefore not the usual run-of-the-mill fantasy hero/heroine material.  This makes for a nice change; not only young people can have adventures, and even older ones can be given a chance to change and grow.

Less praiseworthy is the length of the book, which is more akin to normal fantasy size and consequently, parts of it tend to drag or be repetitive.   Instead of the usual technique of flicking back and forth between different sets of characters this book stays with one for a long time and then takes up with another, also for a long time.  This does tend to allow the reader to focus on one person and set of events, but at the risk of losing momentum with the other.  By the end of the book, however, I did feel thoroughly immersed in the story and the location, so it will be interesting to see what happens next.