Mark of the Fool 2 picks up right where the first left off, with Alex’s sister Selina depressed after finding out that she had the potential to be a powerful fire mage, the same element that caused the death of her sister. It’s a powerful thing to happen and I was happy that this book gave her room to cope with it. Which she proceeds to do over the course of this book and probably the next few as well.

Slow and gradual development is the deal with all the characters. And by this point there’s quite a significant cast. When I started this book I found I’d actually forgotten who a lot of characters were and had to go back and reread the previous book. However I was pretty tired at the time and it had been a while since I read the previous book so that might have been a personal problem. Anyway, while Alex and Theresa develops the most, as befits their status as the main characters, both personally and in their abilities. But it’s nice seeing everyone develop as well.

It’s nicely slow paced and takes its time, which might explain why it’s 830 odd pages long. But it never felt like it was dragging, and the pacing was pretty good. This was helped by the writer’s voice, which was energetic and funny in the right places, while still managing to have serious moments as well. It also managed to keep the same sense of a massive, living world as the first one, though Alex did become a little more of a main character in some ways.

All in all, this was a good story, that gave me everything I was wanting and left tantalising hints of what will come next.