A Shout For The Dead (The Ascendants of Estorea Book 2) by James Barclay

The Estorean Conquord has been rebuilding from the Tsardon war and has only just retaken Atreska. The Ascendancy has been trying to win acceptance but their efforts are always undone by the Order speakers’ lead by the Chancellor. But now the Tsardon are back lead by the mad Gorian who having learned how to raise the dead is leading them to conquer the world. The Ascendancy and conquord Legions must find a way to stop an army of the dead with out using fire as it is banned by their religion. But disbelieving the reports of war and consumed with hatred of the Ascendancy the Chancellor and the order turn the citizens against the Advocate demanding the Ascendancy be killed. Can the Ascendancy survive the Chancellor and save the world from Gorian.

I am a big fan of James Barclay but I think this book was poor by his standards. A lot of the characters did stupid things, which got really annoying. I soon got fed up with Ossacer’s constant whining about being forced to kill for the conquord. That said there was a lot of good characters in the book and intriguing story line. The Ocenii marine squad seven was great Admiral Iliev and Trierarch Kashilli were really amusing.