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The third Paladin’s Legacy book picks up with a nice bit of action, dealing with Arvid and shenanigans around a necklace that seems part of a deep, dark, legacy. He is not part of the most central plot line, and never gets a chance to interact with the other major plots, which do tangle with each other. He gets lost in the big ensemble cast.

Which is more a pointer to the fact that we’re in the middle of a big overarching story, as opposed to an independent book. Arvid’s arc does flow out of events in the previous book, and on those occasions we return to it, chronicle a person in the middle of a very personal arc, which make his sections memorable and a good read. It’s also quite evident that this will come back to the main events elsewhere soon, probably in the next book.

Meanwhile, the big events of the major plot (Lyonya and the elven court) and its adjunct (Tsaia and the Verrakaien) take up the bulk of the novel. The former part tends to feel like the wheels are spinning, as Kieri doesn’t have enough information to understand just what is wrong, and the cryptic warnings he has gotten. Movement is slow, but some things are learned, providing progress.

The opposite is rather true on Dorrin’s side of things. We don’t really get any more information, but much of the action of the novel (outside of Arvid) comes out of this secondary plot. We find that rooting out the Verrakaien is going to be a much harder and messier job than might have been originally thought. This might be backwards progress, but I get the sense that these two major problems are tied together more tightly than it appears.

At any rate, there is a definite ‘middle novel’ syndrome here, but I think I overall found it moved better than Kings of the North, and I am enjoying the entire ride as much as the original novels.