RJ Barker is a master at writing really unique and fully developed worlds. The writing is so vivid in description I can almost picture I am there in the scene with the characters. I however found this book to be mixed and it does suffer a little with middle book syndrome. This book does have some really strong points - Sorha quickly became a favourite this book and I loved how the author stretched their character. I also really enjoyed the focus away from our main characters in book 1 and felt it was done well most of the time, e.g. the development of Ont and the other villagers. However, while the plot does move in this book it does meander. I do feel like a good 100 pages could have been cut from this book and not impacted the overall story but made it tighter. As mentioned Cahan and Venn are less central in this book. While this does work for Cahan, with Venn it does feel more say rather than show how important their character is to the story. Overall though, I enjoyed the read and will look forward to the last one.

"Gods of Wyrdwood" was my first book from RK Barker, and I was enthralled by the uniqueness and weirdness of the world the author created. We met that uniqueness again in this sequel, second book in the trilogy, casting a bigger range of characters, and adding new worldbuidling by showing others places, some that I didn't exactly expected though I suspected that something was going to happen with the character showing us that new realm.

Through a large cast, Barker follow the story where he left it, adding new layers and new informations bit by bits. Some characters, we love, despite their flaws, others we despise, until we don't anymore, as they change or are going to change. A few other, we still or learn to despise as they work toward their goal, without care or oblivious to the impact of their actions.
Cahan is still his gruff, solitary self, not yet able to rely on others when he need to. He learns throughout the story, building tronger relationship, but it is not enough to save him from some of the choices he made. Venn are themselve, learning and eager to do the right thing, strong enough to hold their value but supple enough to ask themselves if there couldn't be something they have to learn from others. As for the other characters, they are all well fleshed out, interesting to follow, and help to showcast that wonderful world Barker has created.

The plot is still on the slow side of the scale, like in book 1, and it takes some time to get back into it. Not that it lacks actions or interesting things happening, it is simply the kind of story that need time to grow and shift, adding new information, twisting itself to create tension and putting characters through events enabling them to grow. "Warlords of Wyrdwood" is as creepy as its older brother, maybe even more so as we delve into more and more details about the land of Crua, learning about the Osere and the Boughry, about the cruelty of the Rai and the thing lurking, corrupting what it can.

If the writing is sometimes a bit abrupt for my taste, peculiar in its working, it is a building tool to create the atmosphere of the story, able to shape itself to the need of a character or a moment. It's a captivating thing to see.

Really looking forward to see how book 3 will wrap this all up !

A solid book two in what is shaping up to be a great series. The characters continue to develop in a way that has me pretty interested! Solid.