Archibald Lox and the Empress of Saunpan (Archibald Lox Series, book 2)

By Darren Shan

Blurb: 
Archie thought he was finished with the Merge, but he was wrong.

Teaming up again with Inez, they must pit their wits against the infamous Empress of Suanpan.

In a city of gamblers, Archie must stake everything he owns, even his freedom...

Book two of the Archibald Lox series by Darren Shan, the New York Times bestselling author of Cirque Du Freak and Lord Loss.

Review: 
I really wish these books were just all one book, I feel like they are far too short and they are just over as the action starts.

The reason why I've rated this book 4 stars and not 5 is for the same reasons as the first book. I feel like there's not much of a background to the story, there's no side stories, no plot twists, no real story development and no answers to my questions just yet. All those back points to one side, it's still a great read, it's so fast paced, characters are all lovable and the story is flowing. 

I'm loving Archie as he discovers more about his abilities as a locksmith, how he can control different things. He was such a nervous character to start of with but now I feel he is coming more out of his shell and having confidence in his ability.

The sense of humour throughout this book was what stood out the most. I feel like it was well suited to the characters that were using it, as it felt that we were a part of the book and actually there picturing the scenes. So being able to picture the scenes also means that the amount of detail into each aspect of the new scenery was spot on.

Reading this book also gives me a sort of sci-fi feeling too especially with some of the different realms and all these portals we have to adventure through. I do realise that it is also very much a fantasy aspect but for some reason it just gives me this feeling. That's possibly why I'm enjoying this series a lot from Darren Shan because I'm a huge sci-fi fan.

In this book we can tell that the friendship between the two main characters has developed quite a lot for the first book to the end of the second book, because there has been a lot of truthful moments and they've actually came out the other side of the problems still friends.

Another thing that I like within this book is that we are starting to meet different people within the different realms and we are learning how each one runs and more about the people that are on that realm. So I'm enjoying this aspect of the book. I just feel like we should know why she is being chased by the submerged, what her plan is and what she hopes to get out of it. Maybe book 3 will give me this closure but then I don't feel like it real. 

Favourite Character: Archie

Read: 09/04/20 - 10/04/20

4 stars out of 5

Written by Sammie