The adventure continues after The Water Mirror with amazing creatures and scenarios - a trip through Hell on the back of an Obsidian Lion is just one part. I can't wait for the next one that should come out sometime in 2008. ( )

I liked this better than The Water Mirror, probably because Meyer slows down on the worldbuilding and focuses on telling a story with the characters and settings he's already established. A lot of action—not surprisingly—and while I would've liked more character development, Meyer put in some twists I wasn't expecting, and I appreciated that. ( )

Habe ich Band 1 noch als Kinder- oder Jugendfantasy bezeichnet, bilden meiner Ansicht nach klar Jugendliche das Zielpublikum des zweiten Bandes - was auch hier nicht heißt, dass das Buch nicht auch für Erwachsene schön zu lesen wäre!

In "Das steinerne Licht" steigen Merle und ihre Begleiter hinab in die Hölle um von Lord Licht, dem Herrn der Hölle, um Unterstützung bei der Verteidigung Venedigs gegen die Ägypter zu erbitten. Ein riskantes Vorhaben, nicht zuletzt weil die Venezianer sein Angebot am Ende des ersten Bandes auf drastische Weise, nämlich durch die Exekution des Höllenboten, ausgeschlagen hatten.

Während der Erzählstrang um Merle, Vermithrax und die fließende Königin spannend und liebevoll erzählt wird, haben mich die Sprünge zu den Geschehnissen in Venedig und somit Serafins Erlebnisse etwas gestört. Ich fand sie weniger interessant und wollte stets lieber wieder in das Wesen der Hölle und das Geheimnis um das steinerne Licht eintauchen. Daher ein halber Stern Abzug. ( )

What I Liked. This is purely an adventure story. In addition to the unique creatures we encountered in The Water Mirror, this time around mighty sphinx are added to the mix. And like the lions, some are winged and some are not. Meanwhile, one group of characters stays in Venice while the other group flies off to explore the environs of Hell.

Now this is not Dante's Inferno. This hell has massive talking stone heads flying through the air, mad scientists, mysterious technology and alien like creatures. Oh and did I mention the 500 yard high stone warriors who guard the entrance? In terms of creativity, this book was flat out amazing. I can easily see an imaginative 12 year old thinking that this version of Hell is way too cool. (No pun intended.) I also, to my delight, I got a few of those answers I was looking for in terms of backstory. Not alot of them mind you, but enough to keep my appetite whetted for more.

What I didn't like. When I read book one, I assumed this was an alternate history. There are valid reasons for that. First off was unwanted orphans being apprenticed to merchant craftsmen, a common enough practice in the 1200s though one that continued through the 1800s. Secondly was the making of crafts, like glass and mirrors, all by hand. Glass was not commercially manufactured until the middle 1800s. Thirdly was that while they had flying ships, those ships were kept aloft by magic, not technology. Actually there was no modern technology that I could discern, aside from rifles. Swords were the predominant weapon, and rifles themselves date back to the 1400s. Add in a ruling Pharaoh, (Cleopatra was the last ruling Pharaoh and she died in 30 BC), ancient Egyptian gods, sword wielding zombies, guards patrolling on stone lions and I honestly had no idea what era this was but surely no later then the 1400s

This book however had very different overtones. Hell contains machines, steel gears, pipes, steam engines and suddenly a reference is made to steam factories in Venice itself. The presence of steel alone bumps the timeline up to the 1700s. The whole thing had me scratching my head.

To cap my confusion, the main protagonist, when describing somebody she met on her journey, said "He has lost his marbles." A phrase that has its origins in the late 1800s. Such a small thing I know but one that startled me. Now all of a sudden I am not sure if this is alternate reality or still alternate history but not nearly as far back as I first assumed. It is also possible the marbles phrase was simply a bad translation. In any case, not having a sense of when I was threw off my immersion in the story. Granted your typical 12 year old would not know much of this, much less care, so maybe I was just too old for the story to be believable.

Conclusion. My advice? Go into this book expecting a wonderful, imaginative and amazingly creative adventure with a few truly priceless revelations pertaining to the backstory. Expect a deepening mystery surrounding the main characters but don't expect any plot progression. Not yet. Evidently that is being saved for book three.

For more detail please read full review @ Dragons, Heroes and Wizards. ( )

wunderschöne Fortsetzung ( )