In sports they talk about the sophomore year jinx when a young player has a bad second season after playing well in their first year. I wonder if they've ever come up with a similar term for the second book of a trilogy when it doesn't live up to the expectations of the first?

I don't know about anybody else, but more often than not I've found the second books of trilogies to be the ones I've enjoyed least. Sometimes I've even found myself wondering what was the point of the second book when I've finished a trilogy. Instead of the author making any attempt at developing the plot, furthering the action, or at the least engaging in character development, it's often just felt like padding until the author can turn the corner onto the finishing stretch of the story.

I'm honest enough to admit that sometimes I as the reader could be at fault, being impatient to find out how the story ends. But the flip side of that coin is if the author can't sustain my interest with the second book, then perhaps something about it is lacking. Far too many times I've put down book two and seriously debated bothering with the third book because it's felt like the author has just been going through the motions.

Of course on the other hand there are those great books where the author leaves you hanging off every word and has created a series where each book is better then the previous one. Where the first book introduces you to the world the story is set in and some of the main characters, the second book pulls you so deep into the story that even before you finish you're wondering when the next installment will be published.

This is exactly what Midori Snyder was able to do with her Oran Trilogy. Book one, New Moon introduced us to the world of Oran, its people, and the magic that is at the very heart of the land's existences. Two hundred years ago Zorah the Fire Queen killed two of her sisters, Air and Water and stole their power in an effort to remain young forever. Her third sister, the Earth Queen, changed herself and a number of her followers into trees in order to await an opportunity when they could mount a rebellion.