Book 2 of the Dragonships series, has Skylan and Aylaen prisoners of Skylan's traitorous cousin, Raegar. Raegar, a warrior-priest of the upstart god, Aelon has given Legate Acronis, Skylan and his fellow Torgun tribesmen as slaves. Acronis trains Skylan and company for the para dix games and to act as champion for his dying daughter, Chloe. Things don't quite turn out as expected when Acronis becomes an ally, Raegar and his god is clearly the enemy, an ogre Keeper becomes a friend and Skylan realizes that one of the 5 torques is in Sinaria. Skylan must free his people, escape and retrieve the torque at the same time without having Aylaen's traitorous sister, Treia bring down destruction on the world. ( )

In the sequel to Bones of the Dragon, the Vikings/Vindrasi continue to fight for their gods against the new gods of the ogres, and the gods of the humans to the south. While the new chieftain learns how to do his job, the hard way, their gods have similar troubles. The villains in this book are a little hard to believe sometimes - two Vindrasi who would do anything to get what they want, including betray their gods and their people, no matter what that leads them to. Meanwhile the 'noble barbarians' keep showing the civilized people how good they are. Its not a tremendously original story, but at least in this one they killed off one part of the Arthurian triangle. ( )