The Gathering of the Lost
The Wall of Night, Book Two
Helen Lowe

Harper Voyager
March 27, 2012 / 9780061734052
Fantasy
Amazon

Reviewed by Jan Fields

Like most epic fantasy, this book is a bit difficult to sum up. Malian is the heir of Night, one of the families of the Derai and she has fled from the land of her people, but she plans to return. In this book, she's in hiding -- even from herself in the lands of Haarth. In this section of the story, deadly things are happening in Haarth. At the festival of Ij, Heralds Jehane Mor and Tarathan of Ar barely escape a deadly attack on the Heralds by assassins, an attack that is part of a larger plan for evil all over the lands of Haarth. The Heralds will play a huge part in fighting this evil, but no one is more important than Malian -- once she again remembers who she is.

Sound complicated? It is and sorting it out makes the beginning fifth of the book a slow, difficult slog. I honestly am not sure I would have stuck it out if I weren't reviewing the book, but I'm glad that I did because once the book got going, I didn't care about sorting it out -- I was caught up in the characters and twists and turns they were taken on. I simply had to know what was going to happen next. The book has a huge cast of characters and it was a little challenging to keep them sorted sometimes, but the core characters quickly became very important to me as I read. I simply had to know that the heralds would be all right. I had to know who the mysterious knight, Raven, really was. I had to know why Maister Carick was having visions and what powers lurked below his slightly nerdy surface. The politics of this created world are complex but the core story of loyalty, duty, and heart-break is as compelling in this book as ever you'll find it. Well worth the initial effort, The Gathering of the Lost will keep you reading compulsively until the end.

Reviews of other titles in this series

Shadow Raiders, Book 1 [review]