Viper’s Creed

Viper’s Creed (The Cat’s Eye Chronicles #2) by T.L. Shreffler (2012)

Viper's Creed

YA Fiction | Dark Fantasy

Blurb:

“Sora is having visions. Strange, terrifying visions brought on by her Cat’s Eye necklace, an ancient and magical device. Spurred to action, she leaves her mother’s cabin to find Crash, the mysterious assassin who once changed her life. She is certain that together, they can discover what the necklace is trying to tell her.

Crash is still on the run from the dark sorcerer, Volcrian, but now a plague is spreading across the land. Volcrian’s quest for vengeance has awakened something far more evil than himself; a force that could destroy the entire kingdom. Together, he and Sora must harness the power of the Cat’s Eye and kill the sorcerer before it’s too late….”
–Goodreads

Book One: SORA’S QUEST

pooled ink Review:

Wait! What?? Wait what happens next?! Okay, okay I’ll get to that later…

Well in this sequel we are reeling from the heart stuttering end of the previous book and you can look forward to having several questions answered in this book’s pages.

This honestly isn’t a spoiler when I tell you that the band gets back together. Woop woop!

Once more we meet new characters as the trio (Sora, Crash, and Burn) resign themselves to the reality of their quest. In particular we meet Laiana, Jaques, and Krait. Laiana is an interesting character that we honestly know very little about. She’s maybe 13 or 14 years old and something about her appearance strikes a chord with Sora while Laiana becomes an instant recipient of Crash’s coldness. Many questions about this kid but for now it seems we must be okay with just knowing that she’s joined their little group. Another character that stirs the back of Sora’s mind is Jaques and this time we meet his family. They’re an amusing lot but quite resourceful. They’re here to stay for sure and it’s quite fortunate that they’re so willing to join the chase. Krait is a most mysterious character and while it seems that Krait and Viper might not recognize one another, Krait is most certainly a ghost from Viper’s past.

Oh yes, we do get to learn quite a bit more about Viper’s childhood when he was just one of the Unnamed. Crash is so quiet and secretive that it’s a monumental struggle to pry anything out of him but when we do learn something it makes him even more intriguing. Then again, with such an unorthodox upbringing how could he not be intriguing?

We still have the alternating POVs in this book but they pick up in frequency and variety. Instead of following Sora’s group with an occasional glimpse into Volcrian’s whereabouts we are now given far more updates on Volcrian as well as what Lori has set her mind to. (Hint: Lori is not one to sit idly by).

Again Sora’s quest is taking her and her companions far and wide with no small amount of hardship. Sickness, injuries, bandits, wraiths, monsters, and more keep cropping up and getting in their way. To top it all off they don’t have Sora’s money bag this time to finance their journey. New people, new places, new Races, oh yes indeed the quest continues and with no lack of adventure or danger to boot.

For those who are curious there is still not much romance but things are definitely changing in a major way and I’m very excited about it. Really I think they’re just deeply in denial about their feelings. Also I suppose they don’t have all that much time to think on such things what with all the evil plaguing the land and Volcrian close on their tails. Regardless, they’re not fooling anyone, least of all us.

While the end of the last book wrapped up rather nicely, despite our knowing their journey together was not yet finished, the end of this book killed me. It had me chasing after its plot wild and excited until suddenly the story stopped and I found myself hanging from a cliff utterly shocked and unsure quite what to do. When I finally accepted the fact that this was indeed the end of the book I gathered my senses and immediately ran to grab my computer and bought the next book. I could not sleep until I had read at least a few chapters and felt reassured that there was indeed more to come. While I admit that it was a good stopping point, in the moment it really felt like the author wrote books 2 & 3 as one book and then decided to slice it in half leaving you dangling cruelly until you could get your hands on book 3. Which, obviously, I did.

Riveting and bloodthirsty as ever, Viper’s Creed travels down new paths flying into the face of inevitability, darkness, and final hope. Only the start to this second leg in the journey and already it steals our breath away.

Cheers.

amazon icon_tiny Purchase here: Viper’s Creed