I found myself as keen to turn the pages of this sequel as I did the first volume of the series.

The abrupt transitions that distracted before are fewer - the politics, battles, and alliances are center stage as before but bcs this is a work of historical biography with an emphasis on the history these events and their aftermath take the characters & their strongholds in new directions .

The horses, the equipment of the time, and the geography are all so well handled by the author that the reader is immersed in past with a feeling of practical familiarity rather than an artificial alien wonder - and here is the wordsmith's truest strength in making the past inhabitable for today's reader - commendable .