The Chronicles of Malus Darkblade: Volume Two Book

3rd read-through. I really enjoy this series.

Warpsword: Marks a shift in focus from the grand finally of previous book. We mostly get to see Malus in battle with himself and the daemon, acting on their behalf wile a city erupts into chaos and anarchy around him. Much of the book concerns crowded streets and corridors with fast paced fighting which, while often thrilling, loses its novelty quickly and suffers from detailing split-second actions in drawn out manners. The canonical lore on this one is especially iffy, but it is well detailed and solid within the confines of the series. The short displays of the titular Warpsword of Khaine is horrifying.

Lord of Ruin: A back-and-forth between the final scenes and the acquisition of the final artifact a few months before make for a nice unfolding of events. The conflict between daemon and possessed has risen to its highest levels and concludes in an actual show-down. There is a considerable diversity in locations as the two remaining great cities (Naggarond and Grhond) get visited. Once again, especially with Grhond, the lore is far from canon, and isn't even particularly convincing. While Malekith is portrayed rather solemn and inactive, Morathi has always been a favorite of mine and her brief moments are icily tense. While Lee obviously was far more experienced and in full control of the narrative, I feel like this one places Malus too much in a power vacuum with him getting handed full authority and control over vast armies and single handed combat turn-arounds; we'd have to believe the Druchii kingdom to generally operate on the brink of chaos for this kind of ineffectual cohesion and leadership. While the open battle description on the raiding campaign are well done, I am more of a fan of the low-level, grimy close combat where the grand scale of things is blurred out by the chaos; something Lee seems to generally happily gravitate towards once battle-lines meet. All in all a good ending with much possibility for continuation, though I'm doubtful we'll see it.