Robert VS Riddick River Of Shadows. The Charthrand finally reaches the south only to find, well, all manner of horrible things. This is the third book in a fun, well written series that combines an epic scale with lots of pacey adventure and excitement and twists and setbacks and peril and darkest hours for our heroes. Seeing as we're obsessively comparing everything to Martin (I DO SWEAR THESE CORNFLAKES ARE FIT FOR A KING'S LANDING WEDDING FEAST), then the young age of the book's main protagonists gives the book a YA feel, though clearly aimed at an older audience (I suspect teen fantasy fans will eat this up, though) which, I think, is how both books maintain the sense of pacey adventure and epic scale. It does repeat one plot from the previous book, albeit reversed, and while it comes across as justified, one can see the author finessing things a bit to get his required outcome. It's weak, but it's over soon enough and doesn't detract inordinately.