the stone of farewell

     The Tad Williams book Stone of Farewell improves on the Dragon Bone Chair simply by virtue of beginning more immediately, the conflict has already begun and the characters must endure or attempt to influence it according to their situations. (As opposed to the lengthy beginning a set up in the first book that, while necessary, was slow.) Simon’s character arc and maturation remain excellent, and possibly the best example of a character growing up I’ve read in a fantasy book.
     Some of the flaws I found with this book are the multiple POVs. There are three distinct POVs throughout the narrative, and of these I found Miriamels by far the weakest, as she lacked meaningful progress, objectives, or growth. Simon’s is the strongest, not just because of him being the MC and someone I’m deeply invested in, but is occasionally guilty of the ‘cliffhanger’ crime of ending a chapter somewhere tense and exciting and then sending the reader into a different POV, thus resulting in much of my excitement dying out by the time we return to the cliffhanger (as well as the annoyance of not being able to continue reading the exciting bit). And the Prince vacillates depending on the conflict transpiring in his chapters.