Hey all, I’m back with the sequel to “The Last Oracle” for this week’s Bookish Wednesday. It’s “The Sword of Elseerian” by Ben Hale.

Plot: The plot is okay. It has its hangups, but it does sort of make up for it in the very exciting final section of the book. That being said if it takes that long to get going, there may be reader retention problems. It follows up directly after the previous book’s ending and deals with Tess having finished her first year at school and really coming into her own powers. But things get worse as tends to occur in fiction.

Characters: There are some new characters, and they’re pretty good in my eyes, but spoilerific to say the very least so I won’t even name them. Even hinting at them is probably too much of a clue. Tess still isn’t as solid a lead character as I’d have liked, and really is carried by Hawk’s ever present badassery, but the rest of the characters are fairly solid as well with Iris being an even greater standout than before.

Overall: A slow to start sequel, but the last quarter of the story really does bring the tension and pacing to a fever pitch. That may or may not be ideal for others.