Shadowplay by Tad Williams

… the second volume in the Shadowmarch trilogy improves in almost every area over its predecessor, most noticeably with a story that is much more engaging, complex and vaster in scope. Where Shadowmarch was merely a long-winded set-up piece introducing us to characters and places and establishing history and plotlines, Shadowplay is an incessant build-up of action, suspense, and drama that picks up immediately from the cliff-hanger events of Shadowmarch and continues on until its own exciting unresolved ending.  Read the rest.