Spoiler-Free Aiduel’s Sin Book Review
Aiduel’s Sin is a fast-paced, more action-packed sequel to the brilliant Illborn by Daniel T. Jackson. Despite being around 670 pages, this book was quick to read, with the ending of every chapter leaving you no choice but to continue reading!
A Great Sequel
Often, though not always, the book that follows a brilliant debut can be disappointing, because of just how good the first book was. This is not the case with Aiduel’s Sin.
In my opinion, Aiduel’s Sin might even be a bit better than Illborn, and I read them back-to-back. Because we don’t need to be introduced to any characters, main locations, possible threats, ect, the story can just be told swiftly and easily with nothing to bog it down.
As I mentioned before, Aiduel’s Sin is a more action-packed book than Illborn, with the conflicts huge in scope. The fallout from these conflicts and the consequences of characters’ actions have major impacts on the world and story.
Magic, Mystery & Twists
This is a spoiler-free Aiduel’s Sin book review, so it’s a bit tricky to cover these parts of the book, but they played a huge role in my enjoyment of the book.
There is a lot of payoff from book 1, Illborn. Daniel T. Jackson is either an obsessive plotter and has this story mapped out like Tolkien or Sanderson, or he’s a genius at writing off the cuff!
Either way I am astounded by how well everything links together. Sure, there are still 1000 questions I want answers too, but we are given enough in book 2 to keep us excited about finding out more.
Character Work
In Aiduel’s Sin the characters shine through. Now the learning curve of the first book is over, so much more time is spent developing their fears, motivations, and relationships.
Allana and Arion are particularly interesting characters, with the former having very surprising and intriguing twists. We begin Illborn believing our point of view characters are “good” but things are more complicated than that.
I don’t mean the characters are “grey”, like one might say of those in A Song of Ice and Fire or The First Law series. These people feel real, with inner conflicts that could make them just emotionally upset, or cause them to do a lot of harm.
No one is a cardboard cutout and everyone is at risk of dying. My heart was in my throat during so much of this book!
Final Thoughts
I have had an amazing time with Aiduel’s Sin and was genuinely sad it was over! I was lucky enough to have no breaks between books 1 and 2, but now I’m already waiting for book 3.
If you haven’t read Illborn, you are missing out. If you have read book 1, dive right into Aiduel’s Sin – you won’t be disappointed!
