Great book. Everything that I hoped and even more imaginative. ( )

The Crimson Vault starts with the same scene that initiates Simon's hero's journey in House of Blades, from the point of view of one of the other participants. If anything, this initial tragedy is even more gripping, now that we know something of who Simon is. Not only that, but we now get to see something of the character of Indirial, the Valinhall Traveler who chose to save Simon's life on that rainy day.

I was moved by the very human reason that spurred Indirial to intervene: Indirial was a father, and he didn't want to see a child die if he could help it. I did not expect this, in House of Blades, Indirial was mostly a looming figure, painted in shades of black [no, really, he always wears black]. With this one detail, Wight started to flesh him out into a real character. There really are few comic book villains or heroes in the Traveler's Gate trilogy. Almost everyone has a reasonable motivation somewhere along the line. Simon, son of Kalman, is moderately introspective, but neither talkative nor gifted in seeing into other men's souls. Thus, Simon does not often stop to inquire why the people he is bludgeoning or stabbing would do the things that they do.

Fortunately for us, there are a number of other characters in the book more interested in these things, and more adept at drawing them out, so we get to see a remarkable amount of moral complexity. We also see conniving, backstabbing, greed for power, and pride in ample measures. Then there are miscommunications, judgments made from partial information, and motives that while otherwise just, simply work at cross-purposes with what someone else wants.

When evil is done, it is not uncommonly because inflamed passions, or personality defects combined with a surfeit of power, run away with someone. Unfortunately, there is a great deal of injustice in the world, some of it of venerable antiquity, which provides lots of opportunities for further evil to be done in the name of vengeance.

Simon's world doesn't really lack for justice. There is a whole Territory devoted to it in fact. Unfortunately, the unflinching attitude of Narakan Travelers illustrates what happens when any one good is pursued without regard for the others, swollen to madness in isolation. Every Territory is like that: an embodiment of a virtue that has gone so far in a quest for perfection that you literally cannot see any of the other virtues from where you find yourself. Every Territory is isolated from the others.

What it all calls for is something like we get in the long-lost tenth Territory, Elysium, a harmonious whole of the other nine Territories and their corresponding virtues. In practice, it seems not to work out so well. I am not surprised.

The reason for this is that courage is not the mid-point or balance between cowardice and rashness. Rather, it is the golden mean, or the third way, or the synthesis of the other two. All of the Territories tend to just embody their respective virtues turned up to 11.

This excess of virtue is bad enough on its own, but when you mix them all up together without anything to put them in order, bad things happen. What will put them in order is not some kind of blend of everything turned up as far as it goes, which is Elysium, but phronesis [φρόνησῐς], the art of practical wisdom. Interestingly, Aristotle associated this virtue in particular with politics, and we see that the one Territory that has tried to put some kind of order to the world is Ragnarus, the territory of power, domination, and rule.

Of course, they screw it up too, because Ragnarus is just domination turned up to 11. The ruling dynasty even practices a kind of post-natal embryo selection like the Ottomans did on their heirs to find the best successor. But at least in principle, this is where harmony could come from. But in order to do that, the Ragnarus dynasty would have to learn to let the other things in the world be what they are. ( )

The second installment of The Traveler’s Gate Trilogy opens several weeks after the events in House of Blades.

In the beginning, I felt as if I had missed the first 45 minutes of a film. I thought “who are some of these people?” and “what in the heck is going on now?” I admit, that could be because about halfway through the first book, my interest waned a bit. There is a nice bit of info that was missing from book one, but this book starts out with the same stilted dialogue and it’s almost as if the author is trying too hard to make up for lost time. There are too many magics, too many creatures, too many places, etc., all stuffed into the first half of this book.

"We are the Gar'rosh" the orange lizard-man said. In Naraka, we punish murderers."

There are so many creatures the author runs out of names for them.

"Something huge roared, and-- though Alin didn't turn around-- he would have bet it had a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. The whole floor thundered as the whatever-it-was pounded down the hallway toward its prey."

I think Will Wight has included every idea he’s ever had for a fantasy book here. At times, throughout the book, it seems as if he’s throwing stuff in randomly, out of nowhere.

I did really like that the prologue in book two gave us the same prologue as book one, but from another person’s point of view. That person just happened to be Indirial, the mysterious stranger who rescued Simon and his mother. I say, about time we got to meet Indirial!

At Valinhall, Simon is recuperating from injuries taken in battle. Tired of the politics of Enosh, he’s quite happy to be back even though everything at Valinhall tries to kill him. With his new advisors, Kai’s dolls, he is working on conquering more of the challenges that the house has to offer, so that he can acquire more powers.

Alin, Elysian Traveler and prophesied hero, has taken up residence in the Grandmasters’ Palace in Enosh. He is being hailed as a hero in Enosh for killing Overlord Malachi. He knows that Simon had a lot to do with that and he wants him by his side, even though the Grandmasters don’t like him. The Grandmasters are planning a war against Damasca, where they want to destroy the Trees that seal the Incarnations.

THAT'S RIGHT, FINALLY........about 80 pages into this book, Grandmaster Naraka explains to Alin what the Hanging Tree and the sacrifices were all about in the first book.

"Anyway, we learned that Damasca had sealed a very powerful force at the center of the Latari Forest. It is to maintain this seal that the Damascans sacrifice nine lives every year."

Leah has returned to the Damascan royal palace in Cana, where she is a potential successor to the throne, along with her other siblings. Her siblings are conniving to kill her father and take his place. Leah’s father has assigned her to keep an eye on Alin, and to gather information on the Grandmasters’ war plans. Leah has also decided to keep an eye on Simon and do everything she can to stop her brother Talos’s ascension to the throne.

When one of the Hanging Trees dies and the Valin Incarnation escapes, Leah’s father, King Zakareth of Damasca sends his Overlord, Indirial to kill it. While the Incarnation is slaughtering hundreds in its path, the Grandmasters are trying to catch up with it to acquire its aid in their attack on Damasca.

LET THE BATTLES BEGIN!!! Alin is fighting for Enosh, Leah is the heiress in Damasca and Simon is trying to stay neutral. It's really not clear which side I'm on.

There is a ton of action in this book and the second half of the book came together more cohesively. I would even say the end was great! I'm rather fond of two of the supporting characters, Indirial and Denner. It seems like there is a mystery character, Kathrin that these two refer to but she's never mentioned again. Maybe we'll learn more about her in the final book of the trilogy. Yes, it winds up that I can be counted in for City of Light. Hope it's good ( )