Há muito que o Reino de Acácia deixou de ser governado em paz a partir de uma ilha Idílica por um rei pacificador e pela dinastia Akaran. O cruel assassinato do rei trouxe muitas mudanças e grande sofrimento. Com a conquista do Trono do Mundo Conhecido por parte de Hanish Mein, os filhos de Leodan Akaran são forçados a refugiarem-se em zonas longínquas que desconhecem. Sem tempo para fazer o luto pelo seu pai, os jovens príncipes são separados e jogados à sua sorte num mundo cada vez mais hostil. E é entre piratas, deuses lendários, povos guerreiros e espíritos de feiticeiros que encontram a sua força e a sua verdadeira essência. Entretanto, Hanish continua empenhado na sua missão de libertar os seus antepassados e finalmente entregar-lhes a paz depois da morte. Mas para isso, os Tunishnevre precisam de derramar o sangue dos príncipes herdeiros…
Conseguirá Hanish capturar os filhos do falecido rei Akaran? Voltarão a cruzar-se os caminhos dos quatro irmãos? Estará o coração de Corinn corrompido e rendido à paixão por Hanish ou dormirá com o inimigo apenas para planear a reconquista do Trono de Acácia? E se, de olhos postos na vitória, os herdeiros de Akaran voltarem a sofrer o mais duro dos golpes?

Thankfully, I was primed to dive into this book, unlike book 1, where I had to try 3 times to get into it.

Lots of action, intrigue, politics and magic. Ends with several world changing events on the horizon. ( )

This review originally appeared at RevolutionSF.com:

If you look back at my review of Acacia: The War With the Mein, you'll find that I was reluctant to pick up something I knew was an unfinished trilogy. I ended up enjoying the book immensely, but I knew that book 2, when it came, would come with a built-in problem.

While book one of a trilogy can usually stand on its own, book two is doomed to be incomplete. Certainly characters are deepened and plot points are expanded, but it's all in service to setting up the endgame to come in book three. It's not that this set-up can't be enjoyable, it's just that the reader will be left dangling amongst the various plot-threads, waiting to see how it all comes out, a situation which is particularly frustrating if the story is good.

And make no mistake, The Other Lands is good. Durham builds on all the good points from Acacia: the world-building skill, the finely-drawn characters, the level of detail, and the solid pacing. His world is a lush mix of political intrigue, anthropology, mythology, and sorcery, and it's a pleasure to spend time there, even in the company of some very unpleasant people. There are villains aplenty here, and cultures beyond our understanding, but nothing simplistic. There are no easy answers to be found here, no hero without a touch of darkness, and no villain without reason for his or her actions.

The remaining Akarans, reunited at the end of book one, each struggle to come to terms with a victory that doesn't feel very much like a victory after the of their brother, Aliver. They are each also struggling with finding a balance between their responsibilities to the kingdom with those to their families. Having grown up apart and in such different cultures from one another, they find themselves unsure within their newly-reunited family, struggling to understand the motivations of people now so very different than those they remember. Though they each have the same goal of a kingdom at peace, they differ significantly in how they think that should be achieved.

The various pieces are being moved into place for what looks like a truly epic endgame, with Acacia facing seemingly impossible threats both from without and within. Given the amount of care and thought that has gone onto the story so far, I have no doubt that I will enjoy the trip wherever David Anthony Durham decides to take us.
( )

It gets better the further you go, but the story takes a while. Durham picks up like the names and events might be as familiar as if the reader finished reading the first book the day before, and he gives no quarter to the fact that his readers might need a refresher on the story and characters. That said, the world he's developing is creative, credible, tragic, and enjoyable which of course, ever good plot needs. ( )

http://speculiction.blogspot.com/2013/07/review-of-other-lands-by-david-anthony.... ( )