Corruption

The Necromancer's Key, Book 2

By: Mitchell Hogan

Narrated by: Michael Kramer

A corrupted power stirs from beyond the grave.

The Necromancer Queen will rise again.

An immersive and ambitious new series from the Aurealis Award-winning author of A Crucible of Souls.

In the wake of the rebel Niyandrians' abduction attempt, Anskar DeVantte, now a knight-inferior of the Order of Eternal Vigilance, has set sail with the Grand Master, bound for the mother house in Sansor.

Anskar has already begun to suspect that the Order's holy convictions aren't as pure as they appear, and his doubts are confirmed when the ship detours to the slave markets of Atya. As the Grand Master gathers an expedition to retrieve an ancient artifact from an unearthed ruin, Anskar finds himself torn between the holy path he is committed to and the grasping hands of those who wish to use his unique power: the Grand Master; the rebel leader, Carred Selenas; and even the Necromancer Queen herself.

When a depraved rot is exposed at the heart of the Order, Anskar is forced to confront the growing power of the dusk- and dark-tides within himself, and find a balance that won't see him damned in the eyes of his god.

But can a lowly knight-sorcerer resist his instincts to obey his superiors in the Order and fight the pull of Queen Talia's corrupted influence from beyond the grave?

The true danger is greater than even the Order realizes, and soon Anskar must decide who he can trust, and what he is willing to risk in order to carve out his own destiny, protect the world, and perhaps the fate of all Niyandrians.

©2020 Mitchell Hogan (P)2021 Audible, Inc.

Spectacular

The world build continues to be excellent. The characters are very inventive from the offer. The storyline continues to grab me and Narrator were superb!

This is truly a great grimdark fantasy!!

So glad I found this incredible series. As a huge Abercrombie fan that can't get enough of the humor mixed with sarcasm and heroes that reluctantly do the dark deeds when it needs doing... this a really good series... like really good.

No real growth until the last few chapters

I feel like with this being the second book in, and long books at that, there should be more growth from Anskar. But he's made no real progress. He keeps waffling between being devout and not, and barely strays in one direction before backpedeling in the other, without much prodding in most cases. The decisions he makes are questionable at best, and often counter to what he was just thinking a moment ago. At this point I don't care which direction he goes, just pick one and move forward. Also, he seems very weak and indecisive, we're told how incredibly powerful he is, but he can't seem to pull off more than one spell per fight without becoming exhausted, if he can even bring himself to do anything at all instead of freezing. By book 2 there shouldn't be so much freezing. He was actually more competent in the first book when he charged the enemy, what happened to that bravery?

Speaking of incompetence, Ghered (don't know proper spelling because audiobook) has to be the worst rebel leader I've seen. She hasn't actually done anything productive at all, just manages to get a bunch of people killed. And her attempts to win over Anskar basically amount to a stranger coaxing a child into their van, but they didn't even bring candy to sweeten the deal. Not to mention she can't seem to go more than one chapter without bending over for someone or going doe eyed over a pretty girl. I'm no prude, but I've seen porn with less spontaneous sex and random erections than this book has.

Overall the plot is interesting and the writing itself is professional, but it's just moving too slowly for me with characters far too wishy washy for me to spend 2 more credits to get to the conclusion, which is a shame because it does start to get more interesting at the end. I just don't want to wait 40 more chapters for something exciting to happen. This review was critical but not because I hated it, I'm just really dissapointed that I wasn't convinced to get book 3, good necromancer books are hard to come by.

Delightfully complex sequel

I thoroughly enjoyed this second installment from start to finish. The characters and story are nuanced, and I eagerly look forward to wherever this story is going.

Good story

This is another good story from Mitchell Hogan. The creation of a ‘tide’ force of magic was a nice touch to this genre. Only complaint is the cheesy sex scenes and fascination with male erection - demons with erections... why?