Tremors of Fury by Sean Hinn
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| My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Tremors of Fury is Sean Hinn’s second fantasy novel. The first book in the Days of Ash and Fury series, Omens of Fury
This review is spoiler free.
Book Summary
Tremors of Fury is the continuation of the tale of four heroes Aria, Shyla, Lucan, and J’arn. They are, respectively, an elf, a gnome, a human, and a dwarf. When we left them in Omens, they had all gathered at The Grove, a place of peace under the control of the elves.
The antagonists have shifted from the first book. We still have Sartean D’Avers, the master wizard determined to rule city of men, Mor. The blustering king of Mor, Halsen, is also still present. However, to say much more of the changes is to give away much of the anticipation in the book, as well as from the first book. Suffice it to say, it’s a satisfying reveal and retribution.
The Characters
Just like Omens, Tremors of Fury is a character-driven story. Each chapter changes scenes and continues a thread of a character’s progression. The scenes are fairly well spaced so that you see characters every four chapters or so. In between, the story progresses for other characters. The timeline lines up as best as possible, with some minor rewinds each chapter to show other character’s experiences in the exact moment, say, as a “tremor” hits.
My favorite of the four main characters is still Shyla. Though I’ve grown quite attached to a secondary character, Mila Felsin. She is Sartean’s assistant, and has her own character arc and development that is delicious as a reader. If she were a main character, I would call her my favorite.
In Tremors of Fury, we’re introduced to a new character, sort of. We’ve heard his name before, but never seen him. Vincent Thomison is a delightful character and the focus of many schemes and manipulations. To say anything else of the man would be to say too much, but keep your eye out for him.
You’ll see many other familiar faces, but besides Mila and Vincent, they neither improve their importance to the story nor reduce it.
The World
Much of the world of Tahr is as it was in the first book. Of increased significance in Tremors of Fury is the Fang, a gigantic volcano that is continually erupting, spewing volcanic ash across the land, blotting out the sun.
The Farmlands take on a greater role in the world this time around and, towards the end, our heroes begin a trek to reach Eyreloch.
In addition, there’s a decreased significance on Thornwood in this book, as a large portion of the story occurs within the Grove, G’naath, and Belgorne.
The Plot
In Omens, the plot had a more unique approach. Save the world by discovering the source of mini surface tears and geysers popping up all over. In Tremors of Fury, we see the plot become a little more familiar. Rather than a fight against a world falling apart, we discover the source of the disturbances is in fact a person or group of people. The enemy is defined as we now have a clear goal and way to stop the tremors and save the world.
This does not mean the plot is any less exciting. It’s still intriguing to watch as everything unfolds. The ending doesn’t quite have the same “Aha moment” that Omens had, yet it’s still highly satisfying watching our heroes in action.
The pace suffers a little in the middle. It takes awhile for our main characters to mobilize. In fact, I feel as if the secondary characters progress the plot more than the main characters themselves. However, the quest they embark on is nicely setup to reach an epic conclusion I greatly look forward to reading.
Additional Thoughts
Overall, Tremors of Fury is a great improvement upon the first novel, Omens. Granted, I found the first to be delightful, so this is icing on the cake. While head-hopping is still present, it’s occurrences have severely been reduced and Hinn has added in many scene changes to allow for different character’s POV’s to take over. This is a much more acceptable approach in my eyes.
Tremors still falls slightly shy of the 5-star mark, though. The only grievance I have with the book is the dwarves. In Tremors of Fury, we are introduced to a slew of dwarves. And, quite frankly, I can’t remember their names. There’s so many, and they all feel and act the same so it’s extremely difficult to differentiate one from another. I even forgot the name of the king. The exception is a dwarf named Kari who is merely a barmaid who gets wrapped up with a secret group of spies/scouts run by her uncle called Flint’s Five. Aside from their nickname, any significance of the individuals is lost on me.
However, this affects the story very little as what the dwarves are doing and where they’re going is more important than who they are as individuals.
Be sure to check out Sean Hinn’s website and Facebook page to keep up to date with the Days of Ash and Fury series.
Haven’t read Omens yet? Check out my review: Omens of Fury by Sean Hinn
