REFORGED

A fantasy sequel focuses on a quest in an unforgiving wilderness.

In Sprague’s follow-up to Out of the Grey (2021), Amot Rixin is a Kith ranger on an important mission. His goal is to retrieve a sword known as a striker that he lost. It may sound like a simple enough assignment, but it will be far from easy. Amot is sent, along with other rangers and queensmen, to an unwelcome place called Whisperwood. Amot and company are transported by fierce women called valkyries. The valkyries command grand flying creatures known as gryphons that have been specially bred. Although the rangers, queensmen, and valkyries are ostensibly all working together, their interactions are not always harmonious. Of course, when the action moves to Whisperwood, there are plenty of other entities to deal with. The place is full of wolflike people known as Wulvers. There are also aggressive ghost pines, which, as one character explains, his grandfather always warned him to steer clear of. From the very beginning, things do not go as planned. One of the valkyries vanishes while flying. Not long after, Amot finds himself in the company of a female Wulver. What else could possibly go wrong? It takes some pages to explain the many players involved. The multifaceted narrative shifts, chapter by chapter, among a number of characters, including Amot, a queensman named Eriff Haulik, and even at one point the hero’s dog, Howler. The details involved can prove tedious. For instance, different aspects of the valkyries are explained, such as why a “wind rider” is not the same as a “knightmaiden” and how a woman named Galewind has been “tied up with liaison duties.” Such information is not particularly key to the major events to come. Yet those events do not disappoint. The dangers of Whisperwood prove peculiar, memorable, and even funny. Human-Wulver relations become prime opportunities for danger as well as comedy. At one point, a Wulver wants a lantern even though he doesn’t actually know what one is. In the end, this wild country is well stocked with enticing developments and not just genre clichés.

While this tale proves complex, once the hero’s mission gets rolling, the intrigue never wavers.