Forge of the Mindslayers by Tim Waggoner is the second novel in the Blade of the Flame trilogy. The first book is Thieves of Blood and the third will be titled Sea of Death and is scheduled to be released in February, 2008. Fans of the characters in this book should read the short story by Mr. Waggoner in the anthology called Tales of the Last War. The short story is called The Blade of the Flame and adds more depth to some of the characters.

The plot of this novel picks up where the first novel ended. The main plot of this book is rather linear. The main plot is about the Psi Forge that is discovered and how Diran, Ghaji and Company seek to stop it from coming to life. There are also a couple sub-plots in this book as well - but they are really only hinted at so they lose any significance that they may have. It's quite obvious that Mr. Waggoner is trying to set up events and plot points for the third and final book.

The characters in this book seem to be missing something. In the first book, and the short story for that matter, the characters were fantastically written and interesting adding great depth to the story. However, in this book I didn't care about them nearly as much as I did the first go around. Most of the characters seemed `flat' and just there. Some of the dialog seemed forced and unlike what the characters were like in the prior book. In this first book the characters had a few clichés, but largely Mr. Waggoner steered clear of anything major. Yet, in this one there was one cliché after another in terms of how the characters acted and what they said. There is some character development in this book, but it seems that most of the development is by secondary characters and not Diran and Ghaji.

I have two criticisms about this book. First, it almost seemed to me that Mr. Waggoner didn't have enough story to fill a book so he threw in chapters and chapters of back story on Diran and Ghaji. While a little back story is good, and expected. The adage of too much of a good thing applies here. It simply made me stop caring about the characters. Where Ghaji was an enigma in the first book - now there is almost no questions about him, thus destroying that mystery and uniqueness.

Secondly, I would have liked to know more about the sub-plots that were hinted at in this book. I fully understand hinting at story points, but there needs to be some sort of reveal later in the story too. It seemed as though the sub-plots were building up to something, only to find out at the end that we won't know until the next book. Cliffhangers are certainly a good thing, and an industry standard, but some moderation and explanation still is needed.

Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy this book. Yet, after finishing it I didn't feel the same as I did with the first book. It seemed I read a short story in the time it takes to read a novel. There is a solid story here, and one fans of Eberron should read. But, don't expect this to be as good as the first book. Hopefully, book three will finish this trilogy with a bang. All in all, it's a decent book and this is still a trilogy I would recommend. ( )