I was confused by the storyline at first, but finished with a "Wow". I'm loving this series more and more--happy that it will be 4 books instead of a trilogy. I'll also be picking up the writers' 1st work just to see where she started.

Well worth a read for any fantasy fan. ( )

Book two of The Wall of Night. Read for the Once Upon a Time VI challenge
Read the prologue here
Five years have passed since the events of The Heir of Night so if I was to mention anything that happens I might actually spoil you. And I wouldn't want to do that, would I? Suffice to say that there are more Darkswarm and conspiracies, but we are no longer on the Wall. Instead the story takes place among the native culture of Haarth.
In many ways this is a very traditional epic/heroic fantasy. Our hero, destined to save the world, out on a quest to track down magical artefacts and gather an army. Along the way pursued by the bad-guys and meeting up with possible allies and the like.
But the world-building here is very impressive. There are numerous different cultures and lands of Haarth, and they are all quite separate and distinct, and that's before you get to the Derai themselves, who landed on Haarth many generations earlier from a different world.
My main problem with this book is the number of characters with fantasy-esque names, I did find it difficult to keep them all straight at one point.
But at the same time I really did enjoy this book. It isn't the story I thought it would be, but in a good way, it is a much bigger and more complex story than I initially thought. I look forward to the next two books in this series. But not the wait. *sigh*

I loved this despite the fact that the descriptions are sometimes overly detailed. Her world building is very thorough and at times a little distracting but what a great story! I'm looking forward to the next book! ( )

Helen is a friend of mine so reading her work is like spending time in deep and fantastical conversation with her. I feel as if she's telling the story just to me! Those who are enjoying the Wall of Night series will dive deep into The Gathering of the Lost. It's even fuller, richer and more dynamic than the first book! Enjoy! ( )

Politics and assassination and magical disguises abound in this one, people are rarely what they appear and there's a lot going on here. So much so that I couldn't remember what had gone before. It didn't really catch me and I found myself not caring about what was going on.

Not a bad read but one to read closer to the prequel and I'd possibly wait for the series to be over to re-read. ( )