The adventure continues when a mysterious figure appears at the cliffside where Niko and Kitsune chased Chisai, up to the point she disappeared! With the help of some local family, the duo track down Chisai’s location and encounter a fight they didn’t expect! After saving Chisai, they make their way back into town, but yet again encounter more enemies over one of the medallion pieces! In the middle of the fight, a long time friend of Niko’s arrives and makes a deal with Chisai and a few others, which may make Chisai double-cross Niko to give up his prized weapon: the Banish Blade. Meanwhile, Kitsune goes up against a stranger with an ability like his own: the ability to move earth. However, the stranger is also super-strong. Will Kitsune be able to fight back and survive his challenger?

It’s often said, in trilogy films, that the second film can be a little difficult – neither character building introduction nor climactic conclusion, just more of the same action from the first film as the quest or whatever carries on. This is a little how Night Blade, Day of Reckoning comes across. The first book was great. Susan went so far as to call it one of her books of the year at the time (see her review of it here). So having also enjoyed it I had been looking forward to reading the sequel to see how the story and the characters progressed. And far as the story goes it was great again, as Chisai, Niko and Ketsune searched for the broken pieces of the medallion. The only slight, for me, lay in the fact that it was “more of the same” and didn’t really present as much as I’d hoped in new style or content. The novelty of the present tense writing had worn off a little and, at times it seemed, also for the author as the filmic quality present in the first book did come across as a little forced at times with description and detail being added for the sake of it.  It must also be said, this is no standalone read – apart from a half page, there was no recap at all in who the characters were, not even mentioning the fact they were partial demons, or what got them to the position they were in. This, though, isn’t a negative, more an author’s personal choice. All that said, though, it was enjoyable as a story once I accepted it for what it was, with some new characters added to the fray and a suitably cliff-hangerish ending to lead in to the third book.

So, although it didn’t quite reach the dizzy heights of book one, I’m certainly still looking forward to moving onto the third book in the series – Dusk of Demise.

**** 4 Stars

PAUL