The Second Siege is book two of Henry Neff’s fantasy series The Tapestry. Enjoyable to read, even for adults, the story progresses rapidly and changes just as fast. The Second Siege quickly changes the tone fromthe first book, transitioning from a child-like fairy tale to an up-tempo, intriguing, multi-faceted fantasy novel.  Still easy to read and meant for young adults, the book has a complex story line that is filled with twists and surprises.     

Filled with great characters the book seems to make the reader want to meet them and hope that they exist.  Agent Cooper, David Menlo, and Max McDaniels are the stars, but I enjoy the main villain, Astaroth, best of all.  Astaroth is a great bad guy and not just a violent demon bent on world destruction, but truly an evil being to his core hidden behind a charismatic facade.

Great book and a great series! I highly recommend this book.

Content Analysis:

Language/Profanity:  2 religious exclamations

Violence/Gore:  Characters interact with a simulator that creates various combat scenarios, fighting seems real for the participants; several occurrences of fantasy violence, death and destruction of property is abundant; several occasions of hand-to-hand fighting that results in death or injury, somewhat descriptive – most occurrences involve knife fighting and some include blood; one gory scene that involves a character losing a hand to a demon that bites the hand off, the act in of itself qualifies for gory yet the scene is not described to its bloodiest potential; a group of minor characters are killed by a massive lightning bolt; armies fight against each other in massive hand to hand battles, death and injuries are briefly described.

Sex/Nudity:  Few occasions where teenagers flirt.

Mature Subject Matter:

Death, death of family member, war, crumbling of civilization/anarchy.

Alcohol / Drug Use:

Adults drink wine.