A Cavern of Black Ice is subtle where the former trilogy was overt, restrained where the older work was indulgent. Sword of Shadows is a very different series.

The work of a new author, it was a mixture of clumsy writing mixed in with variable characterisation and a dark sense of cynical humour, its main distinguishing feature. This is helpful because Book of Words, though entertaining, was certainly not brilliant. The two series share two characters in common, but otherwise there are no major links between them, and Sword of Shadows can be enjoyed by itself. The Sword of Shadows takes place in the same world as Book of Words, with A Cavern of Black Ice commencing about sixteen years after the events of Master and Fool. Prior to this series Jones wrote a well-received trilogy, The Book of Words, and a successful stand-alone novel, The Barbed Coil. This series comprises five novels, four of them now available. But her adopted father has spent sixteen years preparing for the sorcery within Ash to awaken, and he will not surrender it without a fight.Ī Cavern of Black Ice, originally published in 1999, is the opening novel in J.V. When a chance to escape arises, Ash takes it without hesitation. Meanwhile, far to the south in the city of Spire Vanis, Asarhia March is a virtual prisoner in the fortress of her foster-father, the city's surlord.

A Cavern of Black Ice by J.V. Jones