The Silver Hand continues the story of Lewis Gillies, now called Llew a name he earned by noble deeds, and his task righting two worlds that are tied together. Prince Meldron, goaded on by Simon's treacherous words, is seizing all of Albion for himself, and bringing destruction and cruelty wherever he goes. His only quest now, however, is to slay Llew and assert his false claim to the kingship.

It is through the vision of Tegid the bard that we see these events happening. He has his own personal path to fulfill and that is to see Llew as rightful king of Albion. When the two friends are viciously maimed, he still keeps up his hope that Llew will be king, despite the fact that a king must be without blemish.

Also despite their wounds, Llew and Tegid strive to build something out of a vision. Tegid has seen a large city built on the waters of the lake that he and Llew have come to call home. They begin to create the vision in reality, and it is not long before they are joined by many who were driven away by the wicked Prince Meldron. The renown of their vision spreads, and it is not long before there are two groups in Albion. Those with Llew and those coerced to serve the Prince and it is not long before the Prince makes his way to Llew's northern stronghold.

Battle is made. Tegid struggles to make sense of things that have been floating on the edge of his mind, knowing that the culmination of these thoughts could be a deciding factor in the fight. When the battle is lost and all hope has been destroyed, the hope is reborn by the emergence of a silver hand. The Silver Hand

The second book in The Song of Albion Trilogy, I was enthralled with the story for the whole day, and stayed up late into the night to finish. After saying that, at this point in my journey through the trilogy I will say that while I enjoyed this second book, I would rank the first book first in a list. As I also mentioned in my review of The Paradise War, I would certainly not recommend this book for younger readers. It is an intense world, full of intense happenings. While I think that much of what is portrayed is more realistic than what is often portrayed, there were some moments where I felt the events could have been a little more subtly told.

Stephen Lawhead skillfully weaves words together to hold the reader's attention throughout the novel. The only sections that leapt through were the songs and verse, which is my own fault. On the whole, I enjoyed this book greatly, and am excited to read the third installment!

Thoroughly enjoying this trilogy. Book #2 was so good I couldn't put it down, which means I read it in mostly one sitting with only breaks for laundry duty. Looking forward to #3!

A little slower than the first 1

This is turning into quite an exciting series! This one had a lot of darkness and dispair, but the ending was climatic and victorious. Looking forward to the final in the series.

This book, from Tegid's perspective (which is a big change from Llew's in the first and later third books), continues to give me all the warm fuzzy comforting familiarity feelings of the last one.

However, I have apparently changed as a reader enough that I can't overlook the blatant fridging of three of the only five women in the trilogy to even have speaking roles. It loses some points for that. It's lucky I still have so much nostalgia for the story, or it would likely lose a lot more.

It also gaisn some points back for having so many great Cynan scenes. Because Cynan Machae was one of my biggest crushes on a fictional character back in the day. Bless him.

This series isn't as good as some of his other books, but I liked this one a bit better than the first. If nothing else, it's an entertaining story.

Lawhead weaves an interesting world, but the story is so harrowing I'm not sure I can handle a book 3.