[The Riddle: The Second Book of Pellinor] (By: Alison Croggon) [published: June, 2012] Paperback – 1775

There I have always wanted to deliver the shipping forcast.My third foray into Alison Croggon's 'Bard' enriched world. A world that is generally engaging and exciting and full of texture. Believable characterisation, rich settings some suitably evil villains and a few genuinly moving sections. On balance good to excellent...But! for a bit of a blokey type bloke like myself there were a couple of frustrations! Firstly much of the story is around a seige. Now I do like a good seige, the hero standing on the city wall staring out over a horde of evil minions, bashing in a few heads as they swarm up their scaling ladder, fighting shoulder to shoulder with other heroes as they are almost overwhelmed, dueling seige engines, and the terror of the battering ram!! but we didn't get any of that! essentially Hem is a medical orderly seving in a hospital throughout the battle!?So there I am moaning to my wife about said lost opportunity for drama and she tells me I'm a blood thirsty git and that she loved the fact Hem is away from the fighting! So there you are its all about taste!My other frustration is there is a lot of talk about food and descriptions of what people ate and the atmosphere around the meal table and this did bore me at times!However I loved Irk the white Crow and the scenes set in the enemy's training camp were wonderfully tense and vivid with a very clever plot twist that completely blind sided me. The under ground city was also another highlight. Readers who have been following the series will perhaps be a bit surprised that Maered does not feature at all this time it is all about Hem and co.Well one more story to go and the climax of the story is set up beautifully for a grandstand finish. I look forward to reading it shortly.

An endearing and captivating story of a foretold quest, in an imaginative and cultural world long gone.As stated by a few others reviewers, after my excitement and admiration for the first two books, if truth be known I was a little miffed to discover that the third book was all about Hem- although in Croggon's defensive it could be said that that is the sign of an excellent author, if she can build up the reader's feeling of anticipation and care for the characters!It starts as an evaluation of young Hem's troubled past, and as a result, his struggle with fitting into everyday Bardic society. There is an unexpected arrival, with Hem's discovery of Irc, who grows to become not only his friend but an entertaining and cunning personality within the story... admittedly, hearing that a mere crow makes this kind of contribution sounds ridiculous but somehow....it just works!!I would say there are four main milestones in The Crow - the siege and escape from Turbansk, the quest in Dagra (bad guy central), Hem's fear of losing two people in particular, and his link to the Elidhu (the powerful elemental beings who have long withdrawn from their world) which kept my interest.There are a lot of good points throughout it, especially with Croggon's moving descriptions of the now desolate Turbansk, the Black Army and the importance of Elidhu (which we find out is very important) but I can't help thinking parts of it were a little slow in happening - the only thing that stopped me from awarding a 5/5.But for those who already love the Pellinor series, it is most definitely a must-read!!

i have read this some time ago (unfortunate i gave my copy away ) but does not matter as i brought this one. This book if i remember correctly follows Maerads ( Myrad) brother 'Cai' - who is better known as 'hem' and his tutor 'Saliman'. but this book already has a descriptive blurb so i wont destroy the book further...so if the 1st 2 to go by - then you should NOT be disappointed with this one and with the final - that has a climatic endingas i just finished reading the riddle - i begin reading this again tonight - undoubtedly be up all night again...

Description was good condition I would say OK condition

The whole series had me reading one book after another, couldn't put them down. Really enjoyed them. They flowed well and were very easy to read

This 3rd. book in the series continues at the same pace and develops the characters that were briefly introduced in books one & two.

Pointless writing a review for this as I am a fan. Anything I write would be coloured by the fact that I rate all four of the books the same and review them the same too!

The Pellinor book are so good and this book follows on with the brother of the main character in the series.What can I say it is just amazing and I can't wait to find out what happens next.