Sun Warrior (Tales of a New World #2) by P.C. Cast

Sun Warrior by P.C. Cast
My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

Sun Warrior by P.C. Cast is the second book in the fantasy Tales of a New World series. In the first book of the series readers were introduced to Mari who had been raised by her mother who was an Earth Walker. Calling on the power of the moon her mother could heal the clan and needed to name a replacement for her position. Mari should have been the one chosen but Mari had to hide half of herself her whole life because her father was not of the Earth Walkers. When an attack happened Mari decided to stop hiding the other half of herself after she was chosen by a canine from her father’s clan.

Nik was a Companion from the clan that Mari’s father had come from and was out with other members from his tribe searching for the lost pup when he saw Mari call on the power of the sun. Nik found out who Mari might be from his father who was friends with Mari’s father and was determined to track her down. Unfortunately what brought the two together was Nik needing Mari’s help.

The second book picks up directly where the first had left off with Nik and Mari needing to try to save both of their tribes and bring them together. The Earth Walkers and Companions have a long history of mistrust though leaving them to not trust one another but Nik and Mari need to convince their people that it is in their best interest to learn to trust and put the past behind them. Thaddeus is still out there wanting his revenge upon Mari as he believes she has stolen power from him and he will do anything even if it means destroying everything.

My biggest complaint at the end of the first book of this series was the pacing was just so incredibly slow. The world that P.C. Cast had created seemed interesting even though the story had started off a tad confusing waiting to find out how Nik and Mari’s stories would connect in that beginning but once it all worked out I thought it would be one I would enjoy following. Unfortunately with this second book things did not pick up at all and if anything it seemed to slow down that much more. Honestly looking back on this one it seems about 80-90% character building with very very little action. Now that the tribes have merged the book was mostly making that happen and creating relationships within. By the time the bad side chapters sneak into the read it sometimes seemed almost comical as it would flip right back to the why can’t we get along good guy side of the story.

In the end my rating has dropped with this second book to 2.5 stars. I suppose it might suffer from what I like to think of as middle book syndrome but I just don’t see these needing to be anywhere near the 600 or so pages that they are as it just drags down the pacing so terribly much. On the bright side I suppose there is the positive note of bringing the different people together as we need that we need to just get along lesson in the real world.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.