Review: Zan-Gah and the Beautiful Country by Allan Richard Shickman

Synopsis from goodreads.com:           

The prehistoric saga continues in Zan-Gah and the Beautiful Country, the sequel to the award winning Zan-Gah: A Prehistoric Adventure. In this story, Zan s troubled twin brother, Dael, having suffered greatly during his earlier captivity, receives a ruinous new shock when his wife suddenly dies. Disturbed and traumatized, all of his manic energies explode into acts of hostility and bloodshed. His obsession is the destruction of the wasp men, his first captors, who dwell in the Beautiful Country. When he, Zan-Gah, and a band of adventurers trek to their bountiful home, they find that all of the wasp people have died in war or of disease. The Beautiful Country is empty for the taking, and Zan s people, the Ba-Coro, decide to migrate and resettle there. But the Noi, Dael s cruelest enemies and former tormentors, make the same migration from their desert home, and the possibility develops of contention and war over this rich and lovely new land.

My Review:

I liked Zan-Gah and the Beautiful Country more than the first book. One thing I liked about it was it did a much better job at catching your attention in the beginning and pulling you into the story than the first one. It also holds your attention throughout the book a little bit better.

I also really loved the characters better in this book. I really liked Pax, Zan’s wife a lot. She was probably my favorite character from the books. However, I still felt like I wasn’t connecting to the characters as well as I should have. For me, one of the most important things in a story, are the characters. If I can’t connect with them, and feel how they feel, think the way they think, then that makes the story less enjoyable.

I liked the plot and thought it was really good. It’s a good story that should be read, but I felt that the writing was a little bit less than it should have been for this story. I still really liked the ending though. The ending was perfect for this book. Not all books have endings that really fit the story and make it even better, the way this one does.

Overall, this book is a nice, short read with a good plot, plenty of action, and something to think about. I give it 6/10.