The Walking Flame by Daniel Hylton is the second book in the Kelven’s Riddle sequence, which will consist of five books. The first book is titled The Mountain in the Middle of the World, the next three novels are tentatively titled; The Prince of Men (which has a tentative release date of August, 2009), The Sword of Heaven, and The Stronghold of Evil. Mr. Hylton is most likely a name that fantasy fans have never heard of before. Prior to reading the first novel, I had not heard of him either. However, I have always said I am willing to give new authors a shot. Once I finished the first novel I was happy I had read it. My only wonder going into this novel was could the author hold true to what he established in the first novel, and improve upon it at the same time. Here are my thoughts on this novel.

The plot of this book takes place right after the events of the first novel. Aram is answering the summons of Kelven and heading to the mountain. The main plot of this novel further focuses on the influence of Manon and the struggles of the people in the realm. The story follows Aram as he further explores the world, and seeks to expand his forces to fight against Manon. There are a couple of subplots intermingled here as well, such as; Aram always wanting to do things on his own, just how great the threat of Manon truly is, the further development of the love interest, and the further development of Aram’s heritage. The story does read in a slightly linear and predictable fashion, and for well read fantasy fans, they may be able to predict plot points and certain character developments. However, I don’t think that takes too much away from what is a solid story and one with the possibility of becoming a very good story. While parts of it may be predictable, it is none-the-less a solid story and one that deserves to be in the fantasy genre.

The characters in this book are by and large the same cast that appeared in the first novel, with several new additions. Aram, Thaniel, Alvern, Findaen, Ka’en, Manon and several others. Make no mistake about it, this story revolves around Aram, and as such Mr. Hylton has done a very good job of making him both identifiable and fallible. By no means is Aram perfect, and to me, that is one of the big drawing points for him. He makes mistakes, has doubts, and more importantly does not do everything that makes sense. I was pleased with the amount of character development that went into the secondary. It is refreshing to read about characters, especially secondary characters, who are not in the book merely to get the main character to another plot point. They genuinely have a stake in what happens with the plot and are seeking to makes things right for themselves. At times, I would have liked to have seen the dialogue cut down a little bit as there are places where less is more. I would have also liked to have gotten a glimpse of Manon. In the first novel he was hinted at several times, in this book there are again hints but nothing more substantial to add to the mystery. Mysterious characters are a good thing, but they need to be kept somewhat in the forefront too. Overall though, I was pleased with all of the characters. They certainly added to the story without coming across as forced or contrived.

A couple criticisms about the novel:

1 – This is a criticism I had with the first novel as well. The use of ‘modern’ terms. In a fantasy setting, I do not expect to see terms such as hour or minute when there has been no indication of any type of time keeping device. There is also an instance where the term generator is used. There are other terms that can be used to represent time in a fantasy setting. When I see those words I am taken away from the fantasy aspect somewhat. Word choice is a very important part of a novel; after all, it is the words that tell the story.

2 – At times there seems to be an unevenness between scene description and character dialogue. There are several times throughout the novel where there are multiple pages of dialogue followed by a couple pages of scene/ plot development. To better enhance the flow of the novel I would have liked to see those two things intermingled much more. The way it is now, it seems too broken up, almost as though it is written like a play that needs directing.

3 – This one is more of a personal pet peeve of mine. While the dialogue in this novel is good, it misses being really good because of all the names. What I mean is, the majority of the dialogue the characters are using name of the other characters. I can go through the day without using someone’s name. Especially when they are the only person in the room with me. To me, names and titles seemed over used and at times, detracted a little from the flow of the book.

Some things I liked about this novel:

1 – World building. In he first novel the story, for the most part, is rather contained. However, in this book the reader is given a much broader view of the world, its vastness, and the different terrains. Mr. Hylton has obviously put in a lot of work to craft this vivid world.

2 – The little things. All too often in novels the little things are glossed over, or completely omitted. That is not the case with this novel. Those little things are what truly drive this book. I also think that because of the little things that are painstakingly included, this would be a great series for young adult readers and veteran readers as well.

3 – I said the same thing in my review for the first book, but it bares repeating. Mr. Hylton’s prose has a certain fluidness to it that lends itself to easy readability. The flow of this novel, for the most part, is well done and the story moves along at a decent pace and never seems to bog down, but still provides a wealth of information.

I had been looking forward to this novel for quite some time, and I must say I am pleased with the result. It is evident that Mr. Hylton has a talent for writing and a good story in his head. I think the beauty of this book, and the previous one, is that it has the ability to be well received not only from adult readers, but young adult readers as well. If you are interested in this novel you will find a fantastic, well told, story with believable characters. Since I read the first book in this series I have been recommending it to people. With this most recent addition, I will continue to recommend this series to people. I am eagerly looking forward to the next installment. Everyone has heard about the proverbial diamond in the rough, this series is certainly that for the fantasy genre. I highly recommend both books in this series.