John Hamm

An excellent follow up to The Poppy War. I will leave out a synopsis of the story as it might spoil the first one. Kuang gave more detail to the characters from the original as well as introducing a whole new set of people that were a nice metaphor towards the real world. I know she mirrored The Poppy War to China during WWII and after realizing that it enhanced this series quite a bit. I can't wait to read the final installment. I would highly recommend this series and R.F. Kuang as an author to anyone!

While still a solid installment in the Earthsea cycle it is so far my least favorite.

Pros:
Still great prose, even for a younger target audience.
The two main characters develop very nicely.
Talking dragons are always awesome.
Still a great magic system with an expanding world.

Cons:
Overall plot felt lacking and unlike the previous two books wasn't super clear what the main goal was.
Other characters are very much side characters with little depth. While the world is expansive the people in it are lacking.
I would prefer more conflict but do understand it's original target audience is younger.

This series is so cool! I liked venturing into a ‘nonsense' world for this entry and trying to follow along with everything going on. It is just pure magic and so fun to read through.

Great world building book. Very well written with a satisfying story.

Overall a decent book. I enjoyed the beginning and the end, but felt the middle dragged a little and could have been cut down a little. When I first started it I thought “This is Gaiman’s best” but now I’m not so sure. Shadow was a fairly blank slate character. He had his moments but was a little dull. A good concept with an interesting plot.