Fortress of Eagles

It had periods of moving the action forward, but a whole lot of verbage that didn't seem to accomplish anything. I liked the first book, I hope the third is better.
( )

See Fortress in the Eye of Time. ( )

Continuing the adventurea nd life of the magically summoned Tristen. It was thought that perhaps Mauryl's shaping was only aimed at Hausfel but as Tristen is still here after his great battle, maybe Mauryl had other aims in mind.

Still armed with his sword of Truth and Illusion and the Edge to divide the two, Tristen learns a new word - Apperances. How important they are in the society of man and religion, even if somewhat ephemeral in nature. Fortress of Eagles covers a two week period after the Eye of Time, when the court with King Cefwyn has reconviened in the capital Guelmarra, but before the official wedding to his "foreign" bride the intelligent, beautiful and slightly sorcerous Nervaise. The dogmatic and conservative barons are not impressed and try every tactic to prevent this change in royal policy. Then lightening strikes the holy Quinaltine roof, and they have the lever they require. Tristen is sent on his own, to take charge of the provinence of Amefel. Can he cope, when he has never seen the falling of autumn leaves or snow in Winter?

Another good read from Cherryh, maybe not her best, but still gripping fantasy with questions about being human. ( )

Tristan follows King Cefwyn back to the capital in Guelemara and gets mixed up in the political intrigues of the lords there who want to control Cefwyn and sabotage his marriage plans. Eventually Tristan has to be sent back to Amefel to become Lord there in order to stabilize things for things for Cefwyn. A disappointing book, which is almost all conversations and introspection about politics. It is well over 200 pages into the book before any kind of action takes place. The whole setting of Ylesuin does not really seem to offer anything new. Cherryh is a good enough writer that the book is not terrible, but after reading the first two books, there is not enough of interest to inspire me to read the rest of the books in the series. ( )