The Black Book

The Cycle of the Scour, Book 2

By: Edward W. Robertson

Narrated by: Tim Gerard Reynolds

Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

From USA Today best seller and Audie nominee for Best Fantasy Novel Edward W. Robertson comes book 2 of the hotly anticipated spin-off from the Cycle of Galand universe.

Cally and Rowe have scoured the demonic wights from Narashtovik. 

But during the war, Cally learned he can no longer be part of the pacifist Order that raised him to be a sorcerer. The pair has traveled south, seeking the true copy of The Cycle of Arawn - the artifact Cally believes can restore proper rule to Narashtovik. 

There's a few problems with this plan, though. For one, nobody's seen the true copy in decades. And another, in these lands, possessing a copy of the Cycle is rewarded with a quick trip to the hangman. If anyone finds out Cally can wield the dark arts of the nether, he'll wish all he got was hanged.

Hunting for the book in the Western Kingdoms, Cally and Rowe are arrested by the Inquisition and sentenced to serve them. Since the Inquisition tracks down banned books, Cally has a better chance to find his prize than ever. But one slip will cost him his life. As the Inquisition pursues its leads, it exposes a conspiracy that could be more devastating than the one that almost destroyed Narashtovik.

©2020 Edward W. Robertson (P)2020 Podium Audio

pretty good

not. much character,development and he kills randomly killed Roe for no,apparent reason.
its kind of a just mish mash story from Kali's past. biggest weakness was poor character development

Good but felt recycled

Good story and I enjoy the spinoff from the original Cycle, but this book felt like a repackaging of Dante's exploits in the Collen Basin. Still worth reading and it probably sets up the rest of the subsequent books, but I found myself thinking it felt repetitive.

Average

I expected more especially at the end once it was all clear who was the cause of the trouble. I don't get why he didn't kill the inquisitor, the librarian and all others he could safely kill then leave to go help the basin. The order will do what they were doing over and over so logically it would make sense to kill them. I really don't get it, leaving enemies alive behind you for what so they can know to come after you, just dumb.

Satisfying popcorn fantasy

This is a good continuation of Robertson’s world. The style is consistent, so if you like the author, you’ll like this. In brief:

Pros: The adventure is decently-paced, and the hero is thoughtful, with real moral dilemmas. The magic system has a satisfying feel to it.

Cons: The dialog, while interesting, is odd. By that I mean, what would be unique quirkiness for one character tends to infect every character’s tone. It’s not bad to listen to, but it does make the writing feel inflexible. The magic system is not incredibly clear or interesting. New challenges and abilities are stretched out of rudimentary elements in ways that only have vague explanations.

the audio quality was shotty

in the first half the narrator's voice sounded like he was on a tunnel randomly. but after about half way point it stopped do that.


I love hearing Cally's orgin stories. excited for next book!!

Explains more of who Kali is!

Love dante's only successful teacher? turns out he's been holding out on his knowledge! could have solved so many troubles if Dante had a copy of this!

I like this series so far

Good, a little strange, and not a perfect work of art, just good. I think it’s worth the credit and I think I’ll get the next one.

Go for it

Great read

Enjoyed this book very much. In some ways it was better than the first in the series.

Excellent!

Another excellent story in the world of the Cycle. It's great to great Cali's story. I wondered throughout Dante's story about this very odd character. Tim Gerard Reynolds is a wonderful performer!!!

Great story

I enjoyed the book a lot!

Spoiler Below!!!
The only thing that didn’t make since to me was how willing myla was to use the nether. Like, why was it always her that came to the decision to use it? She had been taught her whole life that it was evil and corrupting. You would think that calli would come to the idea first. The nether is like his right hand, a first language. But nope. Idk, kind of nit picky, but it did bug me.

So jarring

Narration is great and the story is interesting.. But the book is awful.

How can this be? Simple. It is written in first perspective, or as I like to call it "Diary mode". This is frankly something I dislike to begin with, no matter what, but can look past...

What makes it incredibly jarring and honestly feels like a very odd decision, is to change from a third person writing style to a first person one, from one book to another. I often choose to read books based on whether they are written in first person or third person, so to now have read the start of series that I will not enjoy finishing, sucks.

That said, Robertson is a genius writer and Reynolds is one of my top 5 narrators. Cycle of Arawn and Galand are two of my all time fave series and I've nothing but love for these guys.

Sadly, shifting perspective like this has ruined it for me, so I'll just wait for his other book series.

loved it

loved it, onto the next book in this series. Can't wait! Really easy to listen to.

great book

loved it but bit shorter than the cycle books, nice to understand where cally came from