Cyndere's Midnight - Jeffrey Overstreet

Cyndere's Midnight (Overstreet, 2008)

Thankfully, in the second book of the Auralia series, Overstreet's writing either improved a lot, or he got a heartless editor.  The narrative pratfalls are almost completely absent, and in their place is a beautiful yet economic prose style that is original Overstreet, instead of knock-off Tolkein.

The story and characters are better this time around, too.  The beastmen, which were nameless, faceless threats in Auralia's Colors, become real characters, men of the fallen House Cent Regus who have been transformed through evil, powerful magic.  Cyndere, heir of House Bel Amica, sets out with her husband to bring the beastmen back into the fold of humanity, but one particular beastman named Jordam has already started the journey home, thanks to the time he spent admiring the art of Auralia.

Jordam is probably the most powerful character in the book. Good and evil wrestle inside him, with his violent brothers and the Cent Regus curse urging him on to hatred and murder while Cyndere and the lingering influence of Auralia call him toward redemption. However, all the characters are engaging, and the plot has great action and depth, topped off with a stirring battle for survival between House Abascar and a beastman uprising.  The story begun in Auralia's Colors takes a satisfying turn in Cyndere's Midnight.

Arbitrary rating: 4.5 out of 5 homeward-bound beastmen