I see that I am not the only one who was massively let down by the quality of Sword From Red Ice (SFRI).

I'd waited in feverish anticipation for 3 years for SFRI to come out. When it did I read through it in 24hrs! My initial reaction while I was reading was one of immense disappointment. At the end of the book I still hadn't changed my mind. Having gone over it in bits since then, I still see no reason to change my mind. And the reason for that is that I found the plot to thin, characters underdeveloped and explanation of detail very tedious, over the top and in some cases totally irrelevant - irrelevant because the sequence of events that were supposed to act as a follow through to the details themselves were sparse and patchy.

The previous books in the series were a beauty - gripping, real, gritty and imaginative. In contrast, SFRI was a boring read. I had the strong impression that the original intention had been to make a Sword of Shadows trilogy, but that JV Jones must have somehow allowed herself to be browbeaten by the publishers into agreeing to milk the fans for what it was worth by making a longer series. If true, then bad idea.

With regard to the remainder of the series, my advice to JV Jones would be to offset the copious amounts of detail with relevant sequence of events that throw more light on the initial explanations as well as allow for continuity(she did this especially brilliantly in the first book of the series). Also, she would do well to bring the main characters into play by giving them active roles - Raif, Effie, Drey, Angus Lok, Vaylo, Marafice, Raina and Ash. Less explanations - we already know their history, more action and more story-telling. Even if it ends up be a 1000 pages long.

Then we would have a book worth reading!

This book continues on where the series left off but unless you just read the other two that doesn't help you a whole bunch. In my case it hasn't helped much at all. Having to wait over three years between books in this series makes it almost impossible to stay in any sort of flow and I have ended up reading them more as stand alone books rather than the series they were intended to be. Secondly, Jones recognizes this. She includes a "story so far" section at the beginning but it does not come close to reminding you of the mannerisms of the charecters we have grown fond of in earlier books or the intricacies of the story and world she has created. I am constantly trying to remember who did what in earlier books even though I read the first two more than once. It makes for frustrating reading and causes the experience to be less than what it could be with more continuity. Finally, Jones is falling into the classic trap of Fantasy series'. She is starting to get so many story lines going on that even in a several hundred page book, none of them get advanced that far. I call this the "Robert Jordan syndrome" and she is dangerously close to falling prey to it. In the first two books we were given about three or four story lines to follow. Now we are up to 7 or so. It is starting to become too much to keep track of and it causes the story to move very, very slowly.

Jones is a master of creating a rich world that does not rely on the old cliche's drawn from Tolkein and others. Her charecters are engaging and have depth to them that you will not often find in other fantasy writers. And, unlike other prominent fantasy writers, her charecters act like grown ups in adult situations. To date, I have like everything she has written a great deal. I hope she does not blow it by continuing to take several years to crank out a sequel and by having too many spin off story lines that are not central to the main theme.

A Sword from Red Ice still does not impact me like A Cavern of Black Ice, but it comes close. I fortunately waited to read the whole series for the first time less then 3 weeks ago and finished SFRI just moments ago. Other than Terry Goodkind, no other author has impacted me like JV Jones. I have been searching for a new kind of fantasy for years, little did I know that the 1st 2 books sitting on my shelf for about 3-4 years was exactly the barbarian gritty heroic style I was searching for!
The only problem I have with SFRI, is there is not enough Raif and certainly not enough Ash, who were the main characters. There are too many chapters with sub plots that never overlap with eachother, and about characters I just don't care for even nearly as much as Raif and Ash. The story arc with Raif is well worth the read, but I constantly felt myself just getting through the next 3 chapters of other side characters to get back to Raif. And out of the entire 623 page book, Ash is only in like 4 chapters.
Now other than the lack of the main characters, this book is STUNNING, and is on my top list of the best fantasy story telling of all time. It's just mind boggling why it takes 4 years for JV to write each book now... If I have to wait for the next installment until 2011 I don't know what I will do. Raif Severance is right up there with Richard Rahl for me.
Jones can write with such gritty realism your face scrunches with pain while you read. When Raif is injured, YOU fell injured. When the characters are freezing in a blizzard, YOUR fingers feel numb with bitter chill and turn blue.
I'm not going to go into any spoilers of plot etc. but I don't think most readers will be impacted with this book like the A Cavern with Black Ice.... nothing compares to getting to know Raif and Ash, and going through all their trials and tribulations like the 1st volume; it's hard for me to say it, but it's the truth.