Dogma of the Five Kingdoms by Charles K. Jordan
In Dogma of the Five Kingdoms, Book 2 of his Five Kingdoms of Cordizal series, Charles K. Jordan again plunges us straightaway into the events unfolding on the continent of Cordizal. Though the war between the Five Kingdoms and the undead Scourge continues, the focus in Book 2 is on the unfolding scheme of the mysterious figure Ta'Lin and his followers. As the book unfolds we see Ta'Lin working to resurrect powerful magik from the past. His scheme threatens to bring an end to the Five Kingdoms themselves, and may lead to a fate worse than death for their citizens.
Book 2 picks up right where Book 1 left off. (My review of the first book is here.) While there is the occasional bit of backstory provided, most of the action proceeds apace. The Kingdoms of the Grang, the Nawahl, the Ramons, Arzans and Xandrans, and the ongoing war, are taken as a given. Some of the happenings in Book 1 are alluded to, but not delved into or repeated. This gives us a book that's full of intrigue and action from the start. It also means that to get a full understanding of what's going on you'll want to have read Book 1.
Each of the major storylines continues here. In addition, we get deeper into the story of the clashing religious sects.
===SPOILERS AHEAD===
The Daughter of Amate, the voice of the Goddess of the Xandran Monogoth faith, whose coming had been foretold, has appeared. Ta'Lin's scheme involves finding her and using her for his own purposes. But she is protected by the Chelkata Lothar, later joined by Prince Fortexxt of the Nawahl.
With the Daughter not available to them, Ta’Lin and his followers must find another way to try to realize their scheme, but they face a looming deadline with the coming alignment of the five moons. Only when the moons align will the veil be weak enough to allow Ta’Lin’s master to cross over to the plane of the living.
To prepare the way for his master, Ta’Lin realizes that the Warlord of Warlords Ang’Lor is the biggest threat to his scheme. So he forces an alliance between the peoples of the Wildlands and the Scourge of the undead, and sets them loose on the Five Kingdoms army in an attempt to kill Ang’Lor on the field of battle.
===SPOILERS OVER===
Just as with Book 1 of this series, I found Dogma of the Five Kingdoms to be a well crafted and engaging book. The world building has been excellent and the story lines continue to evolve in interesting and unexpected ways.
And also like the first book, I was frustrated by the number of loose ends left dangling at the end of the book. My preference would be for each book in a series to be mostly self-contained, but that is not Jordan’s approach. If I can use a TV analogy, it’s like the difference between an episodic TV series like the original Star Trek (what I prefer), and the serialized approach of the newer Star Trek: Discovery (Jordan’s approach).
But my frustration with loose ends is small in comparison to my enjoyment of the good story Jordan has put together. And after all, those loose ends are what keep us around to find out what is going to happen next.
RATING: Four Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Charles K. Jordan book links:
Charles is self-published, and both of his books are available now on Amazon.
📘 Buy Scourge of the Five Kingdoms: Amazon
📗 Buy Dogma of the Five Kingdoms: Amazon