In ‘The Other Lands’, the second book, in the ‘Acacia’ trilogy, nine years have passed since young beautiful Corinn has become Queen Corinn, taking control of the Known World. The opposite of her father, Leodan, Corinn rules with an iron fist. Because of her methods, she decides to send her younger brother Dariel on a mission to the Other Lands, countries across the sea that have no known ruler. But that is not what Dariel finds when he reaches the Other Lands. The Other Lands holds a fierce alliance of tribes who are uninterested in Queen Corinn and her ways. What becomes more harrowing is Dariel’s arrival creates a storm in the Other Lands, opening the Known World to an invasion even larger than what brought Corinn to power in the first place.
Something that was a big difference between ‘The Other Lands’ and ‘The War With The Mein’ is ‘The Other Lands’ is much more character driven and has less emphasis on the detail. The development of Corinn and Dariel is impressive. That’s not to say that there isn’t a lot of detail. In fact, there still is plenty of that and world building to move the story forward as is characteristic of epic fantasy novels such as this one, but the characters are what really shines in this installment of the ‘Acacia’ series.
I had a feeling when I read ‘The War With The Mein’ that Dariel would be a character that would stick with me, and after now reading ‘The Other Lands’ I feel this hasn’t changed. His character is not only more developed than most of the others, but he is just a character that is easy to connect with. His reactions are more to our world and outside of the Acacia universe.
I mentioned Corinn earlier as well, who I can’t say is my favorite character, but she also develops greatly in this story. She’s a complex character, not just black and white. By the end of the second novel you begin to understand why she is the way she is and nothing like her father. I was surprisingly rooting for her at the end of the novel with wanting her kingdom to be safe. Learning more about the Quota children as well helped keep this series intriguing to me, so keep your eyes out for that.
The ‘Acacia’ series really picked up in the second novel, with the development of the characters I wanted to know more about. I was impressed with ‘The Other Lands’ and it should be a great crescendo into ‘The Sacred Band’. The character development is great and I’m glad that I can really connect with some of them. I have a feeling that ‘The Sacred Band’ is what will bring everything that’s been building up from both books so far all together, which is good as ‘The Other Lands’ has left me guessing as to what is going to happen.
It definitely does the job of a second novel in a trilogy and left me wanting more. It leaves you yearning to know what will happen to Corinn and Dariel and to the Quota children. I’m excited to have ‘The Sacred Band’ in hand so that I can read it right away and not have to wait to find out what happens next! I hope that you stick through it to the final novel, ‘The Sacred Band’, which I will have a review for later this week.
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