I loved the 1st book, but am finding that this one has middle-book syndrome. Perhaps i'm not far enough into it, but I've put it down for now.

And obviously picked it up again at the right time. There IS a bit of middle book syndrome, but it's well worth plodding thru the 'set up for finale' pieces. If you're gonna do the series, wait for the final book since it's so close to release, as now I'm desperate to know what happens. ( )

The Griffin Mage Trilogy is about magic, politics, loyalty and griffins. It has excellent worldbuilding, lovely writing and characters I immediately cared about. Each book in the trilogy has different protagonists (which I was not expecting from a trilogy published in one volume!) and moreover, protagonists who are different ages, have different abilities and come from different places.

So I was surprised by how tightly connected these stories actually are.

Land of the Burning Sands takes place immediately after the events of Lord of the Changing Winds - in Casmantium, which is an interesting shift after seeing Casmantium as the enemy of the griffins and Feierabiand. Gereint, a middle-aged geas-bound prisoner with a gift for making and an interest in philosophy, takes advantage of the expanding desert to escape a cruel master.

I found this one the most compelling in the trilogy, because Gereint’s new-found freedom is so precarious and the personal stakes are so high. He also presents an interesting challenge to his new friends: Is breaking the law to help him the right thing to do?

And I loved Tehre.

Tehre stayed up a long time, sketching by candlelight. She found griffins creeping into her sketches, flying above and through and blow the cliffs and chasms and bridges that flowed out of her quill. The fierceness of the mountains she drew and the fierceness of the giffins informed each other, so that sometimes when she meant to draw a jagged cliff she instead found herself tracing the savage line of a beak or the clean-edged sweep of a wing or the taut curve of muscle beneath a lion’s pelt. ( )

If you read my first review you may have noticed that I all but crowed over the fact that it read like a standalone. Well imagine my partial delight in the fact that this is a completely different, only marginally related story, which again, stands on its own. (We will get to the partial part later.) Not only is it a different story but it takes place in a different country. It was a bit disconcerting but it probably should not have been. Afterall book one was complete. Only because I am so used to trilogy storylines continuing through all three books was I caught off guard.

Why my delight was only partial. I liked Gereint and his story for the most part. There were times when I questioned why he made the choices he did but overall he was interesting and fit the reluctant hero mold. I also got to meet a few other new characters along the way, plus learned more about the gifts and magic systems unique to Casmantium. My problem was that I missed my majestically fierce griffins. Oh they play a role, eventually, but not from an up close and personal point of view like in book one. Kes too was conspicuously missing from the story except from a distance.

Read Full Review @ Dragons, Heroes and Wizards ( )

The griffins are in the background as the action moves east of the mountains in this second book. The griffins' agreed-upon seizure of a northern town gives geas-slave Geraint, a powerful maker, the opportunity to escape his cruel master. Geraint makes an appealing viewpoint character, as he tries to make his way in the world as a free man. The other viewpoint character is his benefactor's daughter, herself a powerful maker, engineer, and natural philosopher. Their story would be absorbing enough, but the last cold mage intervenes because there is trouble in the north.

Could be read alone, but even richer if you've read the first. ( )

For a day, a night, and a day slave Gereint hide in the two story deep basement while the desert claimed the newly abandoned city of Melentser, hoping to lose the geas connection he felt to his master. On the second night Gereint sat in the broken sandy city and watched the sun set. As he did, he saw the bright griffins fly over him. Feeling no pull on his geas, Gereint heads North East, opposite of the other refugees and his master. Only to fall under geas to another man and see more griffins fly by.

We start off with a whole new story. We follow Gereint through his journey after the destruction of Melentser. We learn more of his life, how he fell into the trap of slavery of the geas. But most of all, we learn of the person Gereint is. I started to understand more of the country Calmantium. If you read the first book, you will remember this is the country where the Griffins first resided, and now have come home.

Through the book you get the feel for how the people and Cold Mage are apposed to the griffins. In more than just dislike. Their is a deeper feeling that these two different magics don't mix very well, and this is shown to you through the acts and feelings of the characters. I learned more of the Cold Mage and of the Makers that are from Calmantium.

This book struck me as it could be read on its own, not having to have read the first book in the trilogy since we are placed in Calmantium instead of Feierabiand and the story doesn't revolve majorly on the happenings of the first book. I felt this book was a story of its own. We do start to touch on the happenings in Lord of Changing Winds around page 72, but remember the people of Calmantium really don't know what happened in Feierabiand, and what you need to know for this story is given to you.

I didn't interact much with the griffins in this read. They are a constant and are visual through the book. But not much interaction between the characters and griffins until close to the end of the book. In this way there is some suspense built to wonder what they are doing and what will happen.

Along with the griffins there is a few characters who come back in this one. The one main character, which I enjoyed in Lord of the Changing Winds, was Lord Bertaud. And we have many new characters. I came to enjoy these new characters very much by the end of the book.

In all I enjoyed this read and will look for the third book of this trilogy. A wonderful classic fantasy style with a new element...griffins. ( )