[I still have a cold/a sinus infection/the plague, so I apologize for the brevity of this review. -S.]

A few weeks ago, I read the first book in this series; I was pretty excited by Ms. Hunter’s world building, so when I saw an inexpensive copy of book 2, I picked it up quickly. Now, unfortunately, I bet I’ll be paying full price for the third book. Anyway, Faith Hunter either picked a great pseudonym or was gifted with the perfect name to write post-apocalyptic fictionl she has a very extensive website and a husband she refers to as the Renaissance Man. She has a blog AND a livejournal (not the same thing) and a Myspace; it’s kind of easy to follow her life, but I still can’t figure out if she’s got more books in the works (other than book 3, which was released recently).

Thorn St. Croix (occasionally Stanhope) lives in a post-Apocalyptic version of America; at some point in the near future (to us), seraphs (or seraphim) came down from on high, killed off most of the human race, and caused an ice age. Also, apparently neomages were created. It’s been about a hundred and five years since then, and seraphs run the world from a distance. Humans have adapted to the ice, and Thorn is a lapidary and gem-cutter in Mineral City. Anyway, she’s recently been outed as a neomage, and now there are a lot of people after her, including her ex-husband (although he wants her back), the Spawn (dark creatures), a Major Power of Darkness, and at least one seraph. What’s she to do?

I liked the book because it finally explained where the neomages came from. Actually, in general, we got a lot more about the original Apocalypse and the formation of the world that Thorn knows. I seem to remember that I was annoyed that she hadn’t explained very much of this in the first volume. Although I still think that my original complaint was valid, I’m glad she explained eventually. I also am glad that the EIH (Earth Invasion Heretics) got more time and explanation in this book. Since I’d been thinking they were right the entire time I was reading the first volume, I liked feeling a bit justified.

I still like Thorn as a character, even though she’s sort of having a bit of the Power of the Month Club going on. She’s got a strong sense of self, all things considered. The secondary characters are still fun; we didn’t see as much of Jacey in this volume, but there was definitely a fair amount of Ciana (Thorn’s stepdaughter), Rupert (Thorn’s ex-brother-in-law and business partner), Audric (Rupert’s partner), and Thadd (a cop with a secret identity). The interpersonal relationships are pretty as much as important as the overall plot; I like that in a story, and it’s making me itch for book 3 all the more.

Overall, although there’s a section towards the middle of the book that I can barely remember due to cold medicine, I enjoyed this; maybe not as much as the first volume, though. The first one was a great introduction to the world; although this definitely moved the story forward, I’d lost a bit of the New World Smell (TM). I’d definitely recommend reading it; I’d even suggest that people search out the third volume, sight unread. I know I will be. 4/5 stars (since the neomage issue was explained to my satisfaction).