This is the second book in the Storyteller series. While I enjoyed the first book, Storyteller, this book really blew me away. Was it because the characters were already familiar? I don't know, but when I started reading this novel, it felt like coming home.

I found the characters to be real enough to touch and the emotions charged and believable. I do not often get emotional with books - but this one got me. Sadness, anger, joy. This book is truly alive. The pace is active enough to keep the reader interested, but not so speedy that you can't put the book down for an hour or even a day when the need arises.

I agree that this book seems much more plot-driven than it's predecessor. The characters have a purpose - a beginning and ending point, though the story clearly could go on for many more books. I felt that Neirin's task set by Taliesin wasn't wholly completed, though that could have been because I was more interested in the personal aspects of the story rather than the political.

This was a great book and I look forward to reading more by G. R. Grove in the future. ( )

Flight of the Hawk is the second book in the Storyteller series, and starts off immediately after the first one ends. In some ways, both books are very similar: each are almost episodic in nature, both are concerned with the art of telling a story, and both exemplify that art.

However, where the first book seemed to be largely about the telling of stories in general, this one is much more plot-driven and has a very specific story to tell. The individual chapters in this book are much more cohesive as a whole, and each chapter serves to move the story forward. As a result, this book doesn't have the same feel as the previous one did; this is a much more modern story, even though the subject remains the same. Whether this is an improvement or not relies soley at the taste of the individual reader.

Overall, this is a good sequel to a good story, and I look forward to reading the conclusion of this tale soon. ( )

This was a pleasure to read; a recreation of a fascinating time through the traveling stories of a storyteller. G. R. Grove uses 17-yr-old Gwernin, our storyteller and an apprentice bard, to recreate 6th century Britain, "in some ways the darkest part of the European Dark Ages." She stays true to the facts, honoring the sparse surviving historical details and archeology, even keeping perfectly to the landscapes throughout England/Scotland/Wales.

We follow Gwernin, and his partner Neirin (a real historical figure and bard) as they wander across the small Briton and Pict kingdoms based in Roman constructions that are in various states of ruin and reincarnation. We pass through early manifestations of modern cities like Chester, Manchester and Edinburgh. The Briton kingdoms are all on brink of falling to Anglo-Saxon raiders and invaders, while as the same time the Druid knowledge base is fading away, and being replaced by the relentless expansion of Christianity. Gwernin introduces us to a whole spectrum of the time period as he deals with different dangers from the weather to manipulative kings to the Saxon raiders.

The stories are simple and straightforward. There isn't a great deal of gore and Arthurian dramatic romance, although all that is there. Each chapter is a different story and each is drawn along by a mostly subtle tension. And each is a wonderful recreation of the era. These stories are just really nice to wonder through. Their factual base is part of the charm, inspiring me to pick up an atlas and follow along. If nothing else this a cure for a reading funk, easy to get into, and rewarding.

This is book two of the Storyteller trilogy. In some ways book one was a better book, but this story fills out a more complex and interesting world. Book three can go any of several directions and I look forward to reading it.

Note: On her profile Grove advertises that she is willing to provide a PDF copy of a book for a review. I took her up on the offer. ( )

In this sequel to Storyteller, we read of the continuing journies of Gwernin, who now travels much further to Britain's far north - what would become Scotland, but here is still the land of the picts. the travels also pass naturally through Rheged (modern day Cumbria and southern Scotland).

The author taps a rich well of early Welsh writings to flesh out the world she constructs. She draws on the sources we have from Rheged, as well as from the writings of Aneurin in Y Gododdin. As such, the 6th century British landscape is drawn vividly, with feeling and with attention to detail. She even works hard on her Old English to give the sense of Saxon otherness. You come away from this book with the strong sense you have visited the period in question.

My principle problem with the first book was the the lack of an abiding tension. This book deals with that - maybe not from page one, but read in a little way and the tension mounts to set up a delicious encounter with a nasty antagonist called Bleiddig (a Welsh/Brythonic name roughly translated as "Wolf" or "Wolfy"). The story was much better for this, and the writing remains consistently of a high standard. This book is definitely worth a read - especially for lovers of Welsh stories, stories of ancient Britain, historical fiction or fantasy. ( )

For a review of the first three books in the Storyteller series, please click here.

Flight of the Hawk is an excellent follow-up to Storyteller, following Gwernin once again in his travels and his quest to learn the skills and lore needed to become a bard.

In this book, Grove continues with all that make Storyteller such a great book, including the great narrative descriptions of the land and people, the taste of Sixth Century British culture, and the sense of tension and conflict in a land and people beset on both physical and metaphysical planes.

There is, in this work, the addition of a stronger sense of action, including bloodshed, than in the previous installment. Grove handles this well, making the action at once both earnest in its danger and honest in its degree and execution. The bards are not superheroes, nor are the warriors they encounter or travel with. Characters are well drawn with strengths and weaknesses in battle both of arms and of wits, and they are all the more believable or them.

The one serious drawback for me as a reader is a trap many authors of series fall into, that of using the first few pages of a latter book to recap or even, as in this case, replay the previous installments. This is, however, a personal dislike, and it does not diminish the work as a whole, nor does it make me any less enthusiastic to recommend this book and this series to others. ( )