Necrobane by Daniel M. Ford

TL;DR: This was almost as good as the first book. One tiny complaint, but otherwise such a fun adventure. Far less cozy than book too as well.
Source: NetGalley and I purchased this! So thank you to Tor and past me!

Plot: Aelis has to fix the big ‘whoopsie’ she had at the end of book one. She goes on an adventure and fights lots of undead, including a tooth monster!
Characters: We get a lot more focus on Aelis’s traveling partners in this, so I actually loved that and the dynamic between them. That was a great portion of the book.
Setting: We’re in the wilds for most of this. While not detailed it was well drawn enough to get us where we needed and to help us understand where we were.
Magic: A lot more of the fun D&D-esque magic from before, we also hear a lot about the rules of necromancy and the difference between what Aelis does and true necromancy!

Thoughts:

Necrobane is the follow up to The Warden from last year. I loved The Warden, it was a great mix of a cozy fantasy with some decent stakes and for me the feelings you get from a good D&D inspired setting and magic system. Necrobane is much the same, with far less cozy and much more adventure, which was a good thing! With no spoilers I can say Aelis makes a big ‘whoopsie’ at the end of book one and consequently has to travel back to Lone Pine, gather a group and head out to stop said ‘Whoopsie’ from overwhelming the town and causing a Problem (with a capital P).

This is an adventure story, a quest story if you would. We see her traveling with Tun and two others (including Reina, her lovely half-elf lover) to a ruined keep to obtain a much-needed magical item. Daniel M. Ford does a great job in this of building those characters around and with Aelis. I really enjoyed a lot of the interactions, the ways in which trust was building or lacking, and by the ending of the book the outcome from most of it. Additionally we see a lot of Aelis doing more magic. It shines in both combat in some historical information, along with Aelis’s use of a very powerful magical artifact!

My only complaint on this and it’s did really bother me, was at about 60% there was a very understandable mistake made with a drop of blood. Very light on spoilers here – but while healing someone Aelis dropped a single tiny drop of blood on the ground. Keep in mind this individual had some deep bite marks that required minor surgery and burns on their hands. Frankly I’m impressed only one drop fell! And yet when the magical consequences of that single drop of blood come to be, she’s called things like negligent or messy. And she took it! She let those words affect her and she agreed! Listen. I’ve been in a lot of blood. I’ve had a lot of injuries. It gets places! It was so unrealistic and frustrating to me to thing a field surgery and with wound treatment wouldn’t/shouldn’t shed blood that I was wrenched out of the story and struggled to come back.

I did ultimately sink back in and loved the remainder of the book. The contrivance of the blood definitely caused me to knock a star from my rating but overall it was a fun, fantastic new entrance in the series. I can’t wait for The Advocate, which we get a great hook for. I will definitely be continuing further in this series.

4 DROPS OF BLOOD THAT SHOULD HAVE REALISTICALLY FALLEN ON THE GROUND… out of 5