The second book of The Avatar Series, Tantras, follows the continuing adventures of four heroes as they make their way through a fantasy tale in which the gods of the world’s pantheon have been exiled from the heavens, and magic has run wild with unpredictable and disastrous results. This unlikely party of mortal adventurers is tasked with finding the means to return the gods to the heavens. This story is filled with drama, treachery, and heroism, and the stakes of their journey are high since nothing can return to normal in the world unless their quest is successful. The characters are interesting and well-developed with the objective good and evil of the wide world being balanced against personal inner conflict that lends intrigue to the story. The setting ranges across a large swatch of the Forgotten Realms, a fantasy setting that Dungeons & Dragons fans will be familiar with but that any reader of fantasy will find engaging. The characters and places that the author explores along the way are immersive in their descriptions. This book is a good follow-up to the first novel in the series, Shadowdale, and leaves the reader anxious to read the next book to hear the rest of the tale.

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language: 7 mild obscenities.

Violence/Gore: Several verbal threats; characters threaten each other with weapons; a character slaps another; characters face an enemy, and it is implied that they are killed; characters bury bodies after a battle; a character finds dead bodies at the scene of a murder; a few reports of murders; a report of deaths in battle; a character contemplates killing others a few times; report of a suicide; a fight without major injury; minor property damage; a building is burned; a few fights with magic and medieval weapons in which people are killed; a character is dismembered by a monster (no gory details are given); a character is stabbed; a man is killed by a wild animal; a soldier executes a helpless prisoner; a scene in which a character murders multiple people in cold blood, with little blood or gore described; many people are killed as part of a magic ritual; boats sink, causing many deaths; a few fights with magic and medieval weapons with bloody injury and death; characters are mauled by an animal; a character is brutally murdered; a scene in which a person is wounded by magic and an animal is killed; a character undergoes a gory transformation; a few creatures have decaying flesh; a character sports gruesome scars.

Sex/Nudity: Characters kiss and hug a few times; character flirt verbally a few times; a woman-like magical creature wears a sheer garment and flirts with men (not explicit); woman caresses a man’s cheek; it is implied that a man and a woman have sex; men gamble for the prize of having a woman’s company for the night.

Mature Subject Matter:

Suicide (reported); war; gambling; political corruption; murder; capital punishment; mental illness; depression; theft, arson; kidnapping.

Drugs/Alcohol Use:

Characters smoke tobacco.