After reading Worlds Unseen, I was curious as to how the battle would proceed, curious to know more about the Council of Worlds Unseen, more about the Gifted, and more about the past as was shown in the italic sections of the first one. And I rather liked Maggie so I wanted to see what happened to her.

Burning Light is on one hand like reading the same thing over, on the other hand totally different, but what really irritated me was that it was just... waiting. It didn't seem to me that anything was happening.

It follows Nicholas while he saves Gypsies from persecution by the High Police.
We sometimes see Maggie, and she sometimes randomly sings, where she is underground in Pravik where everyone is... waiting. They discover an underground colony which was kind of interesting, and kind of pointless.

And it spends a whole lot of time on the Clann O'Roarke. Who are these people??? When it started talking about Michael O'Roarke (the main guy), I figured, ok, at some point it's going to tie him in to the main story.
Keep waiting.

You learn nothing more about the Gifted.
Nothing more about the Blackness.
Nothing more about the King, or creatures related to him mentioned in the first book. (There's a Lord of the Forest or something though.)
You learn a little more about the Empire, as there are a couple random sections from the point of view of the Emperor. However, the hierarchy isn't explained... not much is.
And you learn nothing more about the Council for Worlds Unseen or any of its members. They might well have never existed. Evelyn and the Lord guy don't show up at all in this book.
Furthermore, I felt the writing in this book to be a bit sloppy.

Finally, near the end of the book, something happens. I'm not sure what, exactly. The ending is heralded by a bunch of short dramatic sections and people weeping, and the final battle was... meh. At one point during the battle someone says something like 'we're losing the battle' and some shining character says 'no, it's just begun'... and I'm like, so what about all the brave people who just sacrificed their lives in hopes of a better world? They don't count?
Then we get some soppy wrap-up for the lovers in the book -- I guess since Maggie doesn't have a romantic interest she doesn't need any mention.

What started as an interesting story -- Maggie's interesting story, really -- has morphed into something all mystic-drama-tedious. I can't express my disappointment. I wish I had faith in the quality of the third book so I could finish the story, but I don't.

(Read as a Nook ebook on an iPad.) ( )