The second book in the series, and it is heating up pretty good. I like this author. He has a keen sense of prose that is sprinkled throughout this tale of necromancy, swordplay, dreamwalk, and all kinds of great fantasy elements. Here is a beautiful example of his wonderful writing:

"Music rose around me, faint at first. A piece my mother used to play on the piano. A rare instrument, a complex thing of wires and keys and hammers, ancient, but the notes she scattered from her right hand were clear and high, pure like stars against the black and rolling melody from her left. Sometimes just a single ice-pure note can catch the breath in your lungs, and a second, off tempo, thrown into the void, can command chills across your skin. A small run, a flutter of the hand over the blue notes, can take you any where, any time, make you feel new, or settle the press of years upon you, heavy enough to stop you drawing breath." --p. 436.

See what I mean? Is that not some beautiful piece of writing?