The Great Northern War (The Portal Wars Saga Book 2) Kindle Edition

I enjoyed the story. I like the MC and the plot is intriguing. The only scruple I have is with the dialog. Several things that I noticed as I was reading that jarred me out of the story for moments throughout. First, certain words are inappropriate for a fantasy setting. They're modern words that shouldn't be spoken in a medieval setting such as "screwed up" and "sandwich". These are words that we say here on Earth because they derived from very specific events and without these events they wouldn't exist. Otto also mentions heaven and hell several times and angels once. These are Christian terms and there hasn't been any mention of religion or Christianity, the setting does not seem to take place on Earth as we know it so there was no Jesus Christ or Bible. The same for names, names aren't all random. They're tied to lands and cultures. I thought it weird to come across names from English to Spanish to "Azteca". The overall story is great but I think great fantasy books come with their own culture and slang.

The second book is not that interesting. We see nothing happening, the MC is boring and doesn't really do anything. No character development just from one fight to another no heart or connection with the characters

I purchased the first four books of this series (The Portal Wars Saga) based on existing reviews and have read all of them. Unfortunately, I was very disappointed. I didn't find anything likeable about the main characters. Each one just seems to be out for their own interests (though vaguely disguised as "it's for the good of everyone") with little to no development. Supporting characters are introduced to further a specific part of the plot within a specific book and then discarded when they're no longer of use with little to no additional background or character development for them. Meanwhile, the main plot steamrolls along with little, if any, twists or turns. The books are easy to read, but that's mainly because there is little substance to the story. I would not recommend this series.

This is the 1st series I have encountered by this author that seems to be a more mature reading of human nature. I almost gave up on this author after reading some of his earlier works that seemed like they were written for naive teenagers.Most fantasy books have clear good and bad guys. I find myself strangely liking a morally ambiguous story where the original good guy slowly becomes evil for "all the right reasons".If the tools you use at your disposal are evil, but used to save the lives of many innocent, are you truly doing evil?It is a deliciously mature story hiding in a fantasy series. I find myself cheering tremendously for the "good intentioned Bad guys"!Nicely done author, nicely done.Yes, we can clearly see the long slippery slope that the "hero" is sliding down into full on Darklord, but we want him to succeed none-the-less. How wicked is that?!

I’ve read both books and have found them entertaining. The protagonist is not what you expect from this genre.It’s a different formula that this author has given us readers.I found that to be a plus the majority of the time.The story has flaws. The protagonist isn’t really a likable individual , his brother Axel is by far the more moral brother.Wolfric, the future king isn’t up to my standards as a sidekick either. ..I liked the story over all , it was worth my money and effort .

I am still, fence sitting on whether I like or dislike this book. There are three main reasons.1. The moral ambiguity of the protagonist makes it hard for anyone who isn't a sociopath.2. The writing and movement of the plot are fluid and work well.3. The wife plot line really derailed me.

This second book in the series is better than its predecessor. In the first book, Otto goes from a kind-hearted, abused teenager in the first half to a bitter, vengeful powerhouse in the second half. In this book, Otto seems to have mostly moved past that and has fully transformed into some sort of Machiavellian pragmatist, albiet one who is still completely overpowered compared to almost all of the other characters in the series.Once again, my only complaint is that things mostly went a little to well for the MC, and the solutions to the few challenges that he had faced came to him quickly. Still though, good plot, the world is reasonably well built, and the characters are far better written than manu other books in this genre. 4.5/5 from me

It reminds me of Mark Lawrence and how he'll write a main character that isn't a very nice person but is still someone you pull for... it's quite the gift. It's not that Otto isn't a good person but more that he does things that many might not agree with and they'll still pull for him to win. I've enjoyed the first two books a good bit and will be reading the next one shortly.

I find myself in a bit of a tangle here. This series doesn't deliver what I expected from it, but I'm still enjoying reading it.The start is a bit irritating as we jump perspective far too rapidly to really get grounded in what's going on. A short way in this lessens to a degree, and while its clear the author did this to keep events in chronological order, I think the tension could have been maintained by staying in one character perspective longer and letting events "catch up" when things crossed over.The story continues with Otto and Axel, the main protaginists pursuing the Straken army while also tying up loose ends from where the previous book left off. While I enjoy the steep and dark decline of Otto's character as he becomes more ruthless in his ambition to gain more knowledge from Karonin and become an Arcane Lord... there's very little magic thats shown other than what he already gained previously and a few short battles. New magic is kind of skipped over and done "off screen" in his private study which is very disappointing. The narrative leans more heavily on the politics of Garenland trying to win the war.Its all done very well and the characters really do push things along, but I can't help feeling a little cheated as the series presented as being more fantasy than politics and it's very much the opposite. Still, I'm enjoying the story so far and will continue along to see what Otto is willing to do to become an Arcane Lord

The writing is brilliant & story building is good. I just find it's not really to my liking. The first book the main character acted so different like he was a good guy a hero and then towards the end got a little bad. But this book just did it for me he's totally took about face and nearly everyone of the main characters are just murderous doubt I'll read any more of the series tbh.

This is quite a superficial story, with very little challenge or character development. It's all a bit easy to master magic, and doesn't seem to require effort or perseverance. Otto seems to spend most of his time killing people who disagree with him, and the whole thing lacks interesting female characters. It could have been good, but it's just a bit dull and repetitive.

An enjoyable series with a sympathetic, if sometimes unnerving, hero. Good development of the magic and an engaging approach to the troubles encountered by the MC. Definitely a series I will continue following!

There were no surprises here. Basically what everyone expected after Book 1. I gave this book a chance to reinvigorate the series, but it is surprisingly boring to watch the protagonist descend into evil in such a pragmatic way. The solution to every problem seems to be simply to use overpowered magic to kill or enslave everyone.