Split the Party is the second book in the Spells, Swords and Stealth series by Drew Hayes. After successfully escaping from the King of Solium, our former NPCs have traveled to the neighboring kingdom of Alcatham. In need of supplies, the party stops at the village of Briarwillow where all is not as it seems. Thistle's god Grumble has in no uncertain terms decided that Thistle, and therefor the party, will figure out what's going on and save the villagers or die trying.

This was a great sequel. I enjoy how much depth and growth our NPC party is taking on. Each of the former NPCs has fully embraced their adventuring role and is learning to make the most of it. Grumph gets some much needed training in the magical arts. Eric continues to use his experience as a guard to expand his rogue abilities. Gabrielle feels keenly frustrated at her lack of progress and finds help in an unlikely place. Poor Thistle is learning first hand just how demanding it can be to be a Paladin, even for one dedicated to the god of minions. I enjoyed the additions of Timiscore and Mr. Peppers to the party. The side characters were a lot of fun too - I hope we see some of them again in the future. I also apologize in advance if I get some of the spellings of names wrong as it can be hard to determine when listening to an audio book.

It's great that the PCs have ditched the bad apples and now seem to have a decent group. I started to find their new story line engaging. The hints at the larger mystery are fun too. I really hope this continues to be explored. ( )

I love this series, 4 1/2 stars, this 2nd book is better then the first the characters get more interesting and the new character's introduced are equally interesting and somewhat mysterious looking at you Fritz. I'm off to read volume three right now.
Character List

NPCs (Spells, Swords, & Stealth #1)

Russell - DM
Terry, Glenn and Mitch - asshat players
Tim - novice player

Grumble - God of Minions

Grumph - half orc bartender, - magic user
Eric, - human dark-haired with vibrant eyes, village watchman, - rogue
Gabrielle - human classic, blonde beauty, mayor's daughter - barbarian
Thistle’s shadowy-looking gnome, crooks in his bones or the strange gait - paladin

Split the Party (Spells, Swords, & Stealth #2)

Cheri - Russell's sister playing Chalara the sorceress
Alexis - wispy brown hair hung down in front of her eyes, blocking most of her expression from view. Her voice was quiet, playing an Elf, Gelthorn she’s a forest warrior.
Bert - newbie, playing as gnome, Wimberly, and she’s a gadgeteer
Tim - playing Timanuel the paladin of Longinus

Timuscor - Tim from book 1, fighter for Thistle's party

Fritz - elf - magic peddler
Talcia the sorcerer - overseer of the Apprentice Committee
Dejy human archmage, handles guild paperwork, Grumph's teacher
Ferdinand De Corslo, Ferdy’s half-elven, hangs around and does work for the council, lightly long ears that stuck out well below his short blue-blond hair. Robes adorned his body just as a slightly annoyed sneer decorated his face














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Very enjoyable book! I'm really looking forward to the next books in the series.

I was a bit sad that the narrator changed the voice for Grumble, though I wasn't surprised to hear a voice very like Grumble's original voice used for another associated character toward the end of the book. I don't know if this was intentional, but I suspect it was accidental. In any case, this is a very fun story and I'm interested to see where the plot takes us next. ( )

I thoroughly enjoyed the first book of this series, so I return to join with Thistle, Gabriel, Eric, and Grumph. It's fun to return to this world, as it does feel like a unique concept. Even as they work in the Table Geeks(tm) as parts of the book.

It's a rarely used problem in an actual tabletop game, but works well in a novel. The paladin's fallacy of must fight evil wherever it occurs. So our hearty NPCs are in a town, and unable to leave. While the PCs are elsewhere and possibly going to head toward the NPCs. Could be ... interesting. :)

I'm not sure how much I trust a few characters that have been introduced. Especially that trader.

Gabby broke her axe. well without care, that was expected. and that untrustworthy character I spoke of? Yeah, she twists about the shopping trip.

I'd forgotten about Timiscor when I started on this book series again. Wonder what happens when the two meet... Doesn't happen this book. Drat

Well, there's an unexpected twist. Grumble had a previous paladin who stole from a dark god. That explains some of the earlier parts of the book.

This one could have suffered from the middle book syndrome that many series suffer. It didn't seem it had a let down so I can definitely say this is a good series. Don't want it to end, but I'm only seeing three books to the series so far... ( )

The continuing adventures of this band of non-role-playing characters forced to become ‘adventurers’ continues in this second book I’ve read by Drew Hayes. I cannot really get too detailed, not because of spoiler concerns, but because it’s been almost a month since I read this book.

The last book left the ‘adventurers’ (the ones ‘in the game’) moving from one kingdom to another. While the adventurers (the ones ‘playing the game’) were left split apart by the actions that occurred at the end of the book. Those same actions caused a new member for the ‘adventurers’ to add to their ranks – one of the ‘players’ characters had their link severed from the ‘other world’ leaving behind someone with certain skills and desires, but no real memory of why he’s there or what’s going on (though he has either partial or full memories of the time during which he was under the control of Tim – the guy playing a game in that other world – though, obviously enough, no memory – since he had none, of Tim).

The book opens with the ‘adventurers’ bouncing down the road, and running into an odd situation occurring in a village. Everyone’s partying. I forget if the ‘adventurers’ (I really wish I had some word I could use to differentiate between the two groups of adventurers without being forced to use ‘’) knew of a plague hit village and were heading there to help, or if they stumbled upon it. That’s what happens when you take a month to write a review. I do know, though, that the adventurers (a new group, though including Tim and the game master from the other group, of role-players in that ‘other world’) were given several options – one was to attack a tower filled with evil wizards, another involved a plague filled village, and a third involved a dragon – they chose to head towards the tower, assuming it would have more treasures to be had – at least in regards to the village, and be less danger than attacking a dragon. I think the ‘adventurers’ whose only existence occurs within the game were also given options. I just forget now.

So – they find a village of partying people. But things seem vaguely weird. So they do what they came to do – get supplies, then hole up for a night to sleep. They awaken to find an empty village. I forget if they found evidence, or just know that the villagers need help, regardless, they know the villagers need help. They decide to leave and head to the local mage . . um . . tower? For help. They all begin to leave. Except the paladin gnome appears unable to move his legs. He’s literally stuck to the ground. His god, it appears, won’t let me leave without helping. So – the barbarian warrior and the ogre wizard head off to get help. The gnome, rogue human, and knight human stay behind to help the villagers.

The ogre and barbarian almost meet up with bandits, but hide in the forest. While there they encounter an elf. They join forces, trick their way past the bandits, and then fight their way past them. Eventually reaching the mage tower. Their, as in the ogre and barbarians, journey is helped by having the elf join them because she ‘has business with’ the mage people.

The ogre is tested to see if he will be allowed to join the mage . . um . . union/collective/group. Quite exciting scenes here. While the other group, as in knight, gnome, and rogue, investigate the missing villagers and find a cavern in the nearby mountain – filled with zombies. Who also happen to be the missing villagers. They, the zombie villagers, are attempting to beat down a door in the cavern. Apparently there is treasure on the other side.

While this is going on, the new role players from that other world are controlling their own ‘players’ who were in the process of attacking the wizard tower (I should probably have noted at some point that the ‘wizard tower’ and the ‘mage tower’ are not the same thing). They are a much more interesting group than the ones that formed to play in the previous book.

All around this was a very satisfying book; one which I wish had a sequel, and one which I recommend (after reading the first book in this series). Everything being equal, whatever that means in this specific instance, I found this specific book to be better than the first book in the series, though I liked both books.

March 17 2016
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