John Marco has truely outdone himself! THE GRAND DESIGN is an outstanding sequel to his first book THE JACKAL OF NAR. It isn't very often that the sequel is better than the original, but John has done just that. In other fantasy series where the action and storyline tend to begin dragging with additional volumes, John has put his storytelling talents into high gear for his TYRANTS AND KINGS saga.
I won't get into too much of the story line, because other reviews have covered that, however I do want emphasize the development of characters in this novel are amazing. The reader finds themselves feeling for, not only the heroes and victims in this book, but the antagonists as well. No character is one sided, being wholely evil or purely good. Even the most righteous can have moments of moral weakness.

There were two books I've read this year that I could not put down. This was one of them. The other was A CLASH OF KINGS by George R. R. Martin. John Marco has been the only other author to capture my imagination and fantasies and keep me eagerly guessing throughout the entire book as well as Martin has in the last few years. He is truely proving himself to be a fantasy giant on the ranks with Robert Jordan, Terry Goodkind, George R. R. Martin, and even J. R. R. Tolkein himself.

This book is a must read for fantasy fans and I am fervently awaiting the sequel, THE SAINTS OF THE SWORD.
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It's interesting to see that several readers liked this more that the first book of the series...That was not my experience.

I am writing this review some time after finishing the book, so my memory of specifics is a bit vague. While I had enjoyed the first book of this series more than expected, this second left me disappointed. I found Richius less sympathetic, and the tone quite a bit different from The Jackal of Nar. I think that my biggest problem with the book was that basic plot elements felt contrived and unconvincing (it's hard to say more without getting into spoilers). At the time I thought the book suffers from a common "second novel" symptom: after having years to get the first book just right, the author may have had much less time to polish his second entry.

Which isn't to deny that The Grand Design has strengths (the development of Biagio's character in surprising directions, and the castle with the crows plotline stand out in my memory). In any case, I've gone on to read more of Marco's work and have generally found him worth your time (and a really nice guy, to boot). ( )

Possible spoilers - You may not want to read if you haven't read The Jackal of Nar

This was a fantastic work by John Marco that only improves upon the solid foundation built in his first novel.

In The Grand Design, we pick up the story several months after the Jackal of Nar ended. Richius Vantran is settling into his life in Lucel-Lor...sort of. He still has a powerful thirst for revenge against Count Biaggio, who ordered the ruthless murder of Richius' first wife.

This installment in the Tyrants and Kings series once again contains the superb political intrigue, wonderfully well-rounded characters and tactical military battles that marked the first book. No one in the story is purely good or entirely evil. Each character has his/her own motives for what they do and in their own mind for the most part, what they are doing is just. The military engagements in this novel are again very well written and Mr. Marco moves us from the sweeping land battles of the first novels to mainly naval battles in this novel. The battles are filled with tension and written in a style that really allows you to see the difference between fighting on land and battling on the open sea.

An excellent novel that I would highly reccommend to anyone who has read The Jackal of Nar. If you haven't read The Jackal of Nar yet, what are you waiting for?!?! ( )