The Tower On The Rift: The View from the Mirror, book 2 Reviews

This is the second book of The View from the Mirror (after A Shadow on the Glass and before Dark Is the Moon and The Way Between the Worlds).

Yggur's army is now marching on the city of Thurkad, and after Tensor's treacherous attack of the Conclave, all parties spread in different directions.

Tensor, the leader of the Aachim, steals the Mirror and kidnaps Llian, believing the Chronicler might prove useful in his scheme to use the artifact. Since the city of Shazmak has been destroyed by Yggur's Whelm become Ghâshâd, the now homeless Aachim are forced to flee North, towards the Dry Sea.

Mendark the former magister, along with his guard Osseion, his lieutenant Tallia and the young girl Lilis try to escape through the underground network of Thurkad, which has just capitulated. With the help of Pender and his boat, they sail to Zile, an old city famous for its Great Library.

Llian believes Karan dead, but the young Sensitive woman is soon rescued from the ruins of the Conclave by Shand, and takes refuge in the wharf city of Thurkad while the mysterious old man is looking for help. Karan is terribly worried about Llian, whom she realize she's fallen in love with. Her sole idea is to deliver him from the clutches of Tensor.

Maigraith, saved by her Faellem liege Faellamor, is brought to Yggur, whom she'll seduce.

In this volume, after yet other interminable pursuits through tunnels and over seas and salt deserts, all parties converge again towards the much conveted Mirror of Aachim, for a final conflagration in the Tower of Katazza. But whereas the characters are likeable, and the story gained a little in complexity, I didn't find it very passionating or attention-catching, and in the end my mind was often wandering elsewhere.