Diamantine

I am going to drop down to a 4 star rating here...why? Well let me say first that I do go 4 stars. For me that puts this "way up there" on my list of books as I try not to be too free with the 5 star rating. The first book in the series was excellent. It's first rate brain-candy with high adventure, action, humor, good characters and the foundation of a good plot line (or possibly "lines"). We still have all that here, but a couple of caveats.  The novel itself is related as our protagonist relating a story of past events but as things are still unfolding. The book opens with Keras (Selyrian) , our hero (so to speak...he hates to be called a hero) on a train (yes I said a train) relating the tale when there is an attack (of sorts) on the train. Once that is handled, he goes on picking up the story from where we left off in the first book.  The story telling here is vivid and the tale interesting it draws us back in right away. However, as the book rolls on, there is a period (a sadly long period) in "center section" of the novel where the (for me) goes rather flat.  See, we've gone to a giant tournament where thousands (literally) of the best warriors in many lands have congregated to compete for, prizes, money, fame, magical items and finally to win the right to fight the wielder of one of the (other) Sacred Swords [Diamantine] (possibly to become that sword's new wielder).  So we launch off into the tourney, and at first it's interesting. The different types pf challenges, points, prizes and so on. BUT then it simply becomes a long series o9f tests, battles and so on. One part of the plot involves Keras gathering information by watching other participants at/in their events through memory crystals.  Finally however this gets wound up and the central plot recovers from it's coma and we get back to being rather enthralling story wise. No biggy.  There is however something that (seems to me anyway) to possibly threaten how this book will go.  Have you ever played D&D or any other live RPG? There is a thing that can happen in a game where the gamemaster, referee, Dungeon Master or whoever allows the players to become so over powered that the game loses all semblance of balance.   The warriors in the tournament are all so powerful that they make most heroic characters pale in comparison.. Heck, the Hulk, Thor and Superman would get their butts kicked by this bunch. Just be ready for that as they hurl all types of magic around, teleport from place to place, cut the air and strike foes from across the arena and carry multiple magic weapons...each.  Yeah, these folks are  BADASS ...  But as noted still an excellent read, but read it for fun.  Lord of the Rinds  or  The Broken Sword  this ain't.

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