A WICKED WIND is Nicholas McIntire’s sequel to the first book in his Archanium Codex saga, The Hunter’s Gambit. It is very much a sequel, and readers would be well advised to read the first book before tackling this one, both because it is an excellent read in its own right and because the second book picks up the story quickly and continues its intricate, fast-moving plot without much backstory or explication, so it would be difficult to follow without having read the first.
At 661 pages (in ebook format) A WICKED WIND is a long book, true, but it doesn’t feel long. There are at least three or four plots here braided together, each lively, eventful, and full of twists and turns, so the reader’s attention is captured quickly and kept until the very end. Be warned, it is very easy to pick up this book, get carried away, and lose yourself in its vivid and engaging story for hours on end without noticing. Characters are complex and interesting, with realistic motivations and visible growth and change as time and events shape them. From literal angels and demons, queens and princes, fighters, sentient forests and their chosen ones, mages, and clever and capable commoners, the cast here is wide-ranging but never repetitive or dull. Most of the heroes of the story are driven by love in one form or another, from the deep romantic passion between Jonas and Alexei to the staunch loyalty of Katherine to her old childhood friend, to the love of parents like Henry Drago and Queen Andriana for their children, and those loves add immeasurably to the emotional force of the story.
McIntire’s worldbuilding is excellent – we are made to feel at home here, and to understand the complexities of this world, quite naturally as events unfold, without unnecessary explication or long dull backstories. The magic has a clear system behind it, with shape and form, rules and restrictions, rather than being a simple handwaving deus ex machina. The reader is given the clear impression of a whole science of magic (or rather magics, as there are multiple types thereof), which can be studied, experimented with, and improved upon. New surprises await around every corner, and the story builds in energy and excitement towards the end, which provides a brief breather of resolution and also a clear jumping-off point for the next book in the series. All in all, this is an excellent addition to a well-written, high-quality series.
A worthy and almost impossible to put down second book in the Archanium Codex saga, A WICKED WIND continues the complex characters, action and event-filled plot, and vivid worldbuilding begun in The Hunter’s Gambit.
~Catherine Langrehr for IndieReader