There is nothing remotely original about the series, drawing heavily on LoTR and Harry Potter (right down to defeating a sea dog monster by singing it a lullaby in the second in the series). But, the writing's better than average and the characters are interesting.
I read the first one really quickly but am having a hard time getting through the second in the series, "The Riddle." I am struggling with the same issue I faced when reading "The Historian" -- I just feel like the same stuff keeps happening over and over again, without really going anywhere. Maerad and Cadvan are traveling. They're faced with a force of evil and banish it. She talks about the weather and landscape. They get to where they're going. They hear bad news, then they travel again. They're faced with a force of evil and banish it. They travel some more. They meet another bad guy. They travel some more. She talks about the weather and landscape. Then they get to where they're going. (In "The Historian" -- oh! another dead end and lost clue. Noooo!). "The Historian" dragged forever without really going anywhere -- Croggon's second is just repetitive.
This series has been recommended to be several times; a good bookseller friend of mine raves about it. So maybe I'm the only one who thinks it is a little too Lord of the Rings/Star Wars (don't go to the dark side, the light is all about "balance"/Harry Potter?
Ah well. With any luck, it will get better as the series goes on (again, like HP).
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