Shadow Warrior (Mechanica Wars #2)

Shadow Warrior (Mechanica Wars #2)
by Jay Noel
(5/5 stars)

This was a good continuation of the series.  I really enjoyed the first book, so I was glad when I was able to buy the second.  This steampunk series follows a budding world war between the Iberian Empire and Nuhan of the Orient.  In the first book, Nuhan prince Zen went on a quest to find the "Sky Sword" to help his people, but that proved to be a fool's errand.  Now yearning to get retribution on his father, Zen teams up with a group of Shadow Warriors, who help teach him the ways of the Force, or whatever the mystical psychic force is called.  But in the end Zen ends up in a lot worse shape than Luke Skywalker after The Empire Strikes Back, more like his father at the end of Revenge of the Sith.  Since I don't read steampunk I do like to compare the story to Star Wars; I mean there's an evil empire and a band of heroes standing against them, so come on.

Anyway, the narration is taut and well-written and the characters from the first book continue to evolve while some interesting new characters are added.  As I said with the first one, even if you don't read steampunk, this is still a good read.

That is all.