The Stone Light, The Dark Reflections: Book #2

Book Two

By: Kai Meyer

Narrated by: Toby Longworth

Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

Deadly magic and malice threaten Merle and Serafin in this breathtaking sequel to The Water Mirror

Merle, carrying the mysterious Flowing Queen within her, and Vermithrax, the winged stone lion, are flying into Hell. They are looking for help in freeing Venice from the invading Egyptian pharaoh and his mummy warriors. But some truly nightmarish surprises await them as they travel to the center of Hell and encounter its sinister ruler: Lord Light.

Serafin remains in Venice, where the gorgeous sphinx Lalapeya recruits him into a plot to assassinate the pharaoh. But does Lalapeya really believe a small group of boys can outwit the cunning sphinx commanders and kill the most powerful man on earth? Betrayal lurks in unexpected places, and startling revelations occur as Merle and Serafin learn that evil takes many shapes in the astonishing world of Dark Reflections.

©2006 Kai Meyer (P)2007 Random House Inc. Listening Library, an imprint of the Random House Audio Publishing Group

Critic reviews

"[A] wild ride of a sequel." (School Library Journal)

a little dissappointing

i'm not as keen for this one as i was for the first book. it was a little hard to get through and the plot was somewhat ... lacking in depth? i wouldn't reccommend this for anyone who was afan of the first book.

Tedious and frustrating

This book is poorly written and a frustrating listen. The story goes nowhere; many characters are dull and pointless. The Flowing Queen is useless. She makes contradictory and enigmatic observations that serve no purpose. Merle is dull and uninteresting. The book suffers from a major case of "Purple Prose" and seems very amature. It could have done with some serious editing! I wish I had a dime for every time a character "realized" something or "could see that? or " saw that bla bla bla? and the following phrases are so over-used it is comical: "Almost seemed to..." "Almost as if" "as if...? or comparisons "...like a..." It was frustrating see how many times they were used and made the story very amature. Here's how the majority of the sentences are set up: " A description or observation is made.... almost as if bla bla bla, but... something contradictory to the first observation.... a comparison- like a bla bla bla." The exchanges between Merle and The flowing queen are frustrating and pointless. You could really edit out the character of the queen because she serves no purpose at all! She seems to know things that could help Merle, but never does. She only offers slight warnings or observations that are useless and poorly written: "I thought that I knew much, but now know that I only know nothing...." (paraphrasing here, but its close) Descriptions are too long, and contradictory. The over use of the phrases I noted make them cliches. The only place the story comes alive is in the dialog of Lord Light. Some cool concepts: Mummy soldiers, the "collector" and The Heart House, but these aren't explored with much depth. The subplot of Saraphim and the renegades is fairly dull despite the action that is supposed to be taking place. First book was promising. This falls flat and goes nowhere fast. Disappointing!