****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
Well, it pretty much blew a lot of people away, looking at the amount of Amazon and Goodreads reviews it has. Memories of Prophecies is the second book in the series and a terrific follow-up to Book 1, A Testament of Steel. There are so many things I love about this story. Forgive me while I gush. But first, let me tell you what it’s about.Cinder Shade woke up to find his family dead and all of his memories erased. He ends up at school for warriors, competing for status against elves and dwarfs who see humans as inferior creatures, for they have lost their ability to work magic. But Cinder soon proves that he has far more talent than any human who has trained at the school before. He attracts the attention of a beautiful female elf, who takes him as her apprentice, so to speak. He wins her admiration, but love between the two of them would be forbidden. It’s hard to give a good summary of book 2 without spoiling book one, so I’ll leave it at that.Cinder is a fantastic character, a strong protagonist who has everything you could want in a hero: he’s larger than life, pops off the page, has a clear sense of purpose and destiny. His skills are constantly ‘leveling up’ and so are his enemies. His counterpart, Anya, is a woman any man could want, able to see past the racism of her kind when it comes to humans. She is a strong female, a warrior, capable and shrewd, and a perfect match for Cinder.I think the thing I love most about these books is the sheer quotability of Davis’s prose, which is loaded with good life-wisdom. His characters are down-to-earth good people you could see yourself meeting on the street. The type of people I would aspire to be. The action/adventure never lets up and the pacing is flawless. Cinder has to fight tooth and claw for every gain he can win, and he never fails to deliver. I can’t recommend this series enough.
