The Silver Hand (1992)

Good again. The world painted is very vivid and beautiful. The characters are strong and interesting, too. ( )

The Silver Hand is a necessary companion to The Paradise War, but I think it does not do what it sets out to quite as smoothly. For one, the switch to a "native" viewpoint character undercuts a lot of the tension built in the first one about whether or not Lewis should stay or go, and while that's less the focus of the story, it detracts from Lewis's character - his reluctance to take the lead becomes petulant rather than justified, and he becomes a cipher rather than a three-dimensional character.

The villains are also increasingly flat - they are edging into the puppy-kicking stage by the end of the book. It's clear what their initial motivation is, but by the end they're just as much ravening monsters as the actual ravening monsters from the previous book are. And the whole "they lose because they are by definition the Bad Guys" is a little hard to take.

That said, it's still a fun book, and there are quite a few entertaining secondary characters keeping things moving. But it's a step down for sure. ( )

As the second in the Song of Albion trilogy, The Silver Hand picks up the storyline immediately preceding the events in The Paradise War; however, the narrator has shifted from Lewis Gillies, now Llew, to the Chief Bard Tegid Tathal.

Lewis' brief visit to our reality at the ending of The Paradise War has reinforced the idea that both worlds are faltering as the nexus bridging the worlds destabilizes. Together Llew and Tegid must defeat the usurper Meldron to begin to repair the corruption Simon Rawnson, now Siawn Hy, has wrought in Albion with his insidious ideas. The action driven, violent adventures are filled with the foreboding and the mythic dimensions of Celtic traditional folklore. As the story follows the twistings of prophecy, Llew is made King of Prydain in name only, is maimed and exiled, only to rise to be the Aird Righ and savoir of Albion.

Resolved episodic ending, in a larger continuing story arc. However, the ending feels more like a conclusion than most second volumes in a trilogy. ( )

The best of the three I think. To tell the story through a blind man is a work of genius. Makes the story come to life in a very different way. ( )

A wonderful retelling of a Celtic Myth, placing a modern-day person into the position of a mythological hero. Very good read. I do not however, understand where the "Christian Fiction" tag that some are using comes from. ( )