Loved this book. I love the choice of Stuart Hill's heroes. Sharley, the most unlikely warrior ends up being the one to save them all as he travels into unkown territory to seek alliance with the most distant lands. The Icemark is looking grim as they fight the Polypontian empire, until Sharley comes back with his aliance of the Desert Kingdowm. And of course Medea, the evil daughter. No book is good without a nemesis. As evil as she was, I found her being my favourite character throughout the book. I was always thinking there was maybe a little hope for her. Great read ( )

A great book (trust me.) A great book. The book's not much fun unless you read the first book of the series, The Cry of the Icemark. In this book, Thirrin and Oskan are married and it's been nearly 20 years since Scipio Bellorum's defeat. Now the Polypontians attack again, but this time with a air navy. As for Thirrin's children, the weakest, Charlemane Redrought Strong-in-the-arm Lindershield, is sent away to the desert people where he recruits both he lusu people and the desert people for the struggle against the Empire's huge army. While in Frostmarris, his vamparic majesty gets killed by Bellorum. The queen then retreats with all her vampires and undeads, and without the vampires, the air navy bombs frostmarris until there's pretty much nothing left. That's when Sharley (Charlemane) arrive with his army-of-the-South and win. On the other hand, Oskan found out that his youngest daughter, Medea, is the causer of the frostmarris destruction and murderer of her brother Cerdic. Oskan then sends Medea to the world of darkness. The war is won and Bellorum's two devilish sons are killed, and Bellorum himself was beheaded by the queen and then torn to bits by the vampire queen. Sharley then brought his new friend that he first met in the desert kingdom fishing. ( )

"Blade of fire" is the sequel to "Cry of the Icemark". It take place about 20 years later. Queen Thirrin and Oskan Witchfather now have five grown children who make up the royal House of Lindenshield. Charlemagne is the youngest and wants to defend the country just like the rest of his siblings however he walks with a pronounced limp due to having Polio when he was younger. The adventure really gets exciting when Sharley (Charlemagne) is sent away with his tutor Maggie and the refugees of the country on ships to the south for the duration of the war. ( )

I liked the first book in this series, but he series has really taken off with this book. The characters are all very interesting if sometimes a little hard to relate to. The story is really well written and I had a hard time slowing myself down at the end of the book. A great book for a young reader, but still good for adults. ( )