Engines of Reason

 

Engines of Reason by Adrian Tchaikovsky, 192 pages.

It has been 15 years Nyr and Lyn defeated the impossible demon and saved the world. The fairytale of the precocious princess and the reluctant wizard came to an end, and life got in the way, as rifts opened between people who were important to each other. But a new threat is emerging, a "sorcerer" with more power than he should have, and the only answers are in the secrets of the past.

Elder Race is one of my favorite novellas, and while I didn't think it particularly needed a sequel, I was still very excited when I saw it was getting one. Having now read it, I honestly still think it probably didn't need a sequel. I did enjoy this book, but I don't think it had the magic of the original, which would have been difficult to recapture. It did have some interesting things to say about identity within stories, and the end definitely feels like it might be setting up a longer series, which I'm sure I will continue to read. This book is great if you were invested in the characters of Elder Race, but not quite so exceptional if you were more interested in the structure.