About

The Rascor Plains is the second book in the The Immortal Great Souls series written by Phil Tucker.

The Rascor Plains book cover

Blurb

Scorio thought victory was within his grasp. He had bested the Final Gauntlet and overcome the treachery of Chancellor Praximar. But the Rascor Plains are full of peril, and his quest for truth has only just begun. With his friends scattered and his reputation in tatters, Scorio must navigate a web of intrigue that stretches from the powerful House Hydra and the Fiery Shoals to the mysterious forces that govern the Plains. He will face foes both human and inhuman, and confront the darkest secrets of his world. Beware the fiends, for they hunger for your soul. Beware your allies, for they may break your heart. And beware Scorio, for he will stop at nothing to uncover the truth.

Review

🛈 This is a spoiler review.

In preparation for "The Rascor Plains", I reread Bastion last weekend. There's also a recap at the start of this book, along with a list of power levels and current stage for main characters.

The book picked right from where it ended in the first book — Scorio, Leonis, Lianshi, Naomi along with Jova, Zala and Juniper fleeing the academy. Political ploys came into fore immediately with the Pyre Lady from House Kraken cornering them. And then, the washed out students were set loose in an attempt to catch Scorio and others — though some of them did have impressive powers to briefly give trouble, it didn't make sense that Praximar didn't send instructors or his own House agents. Especially given what Praximar did later on.

Anyway, the streets being rife with riots, Scorio killed a House enforcer and managed to convince the rebellion leaders to give him ten days for finding a peaceful solution (asking The Queen to intervene). After a brief meeting with Feiyan, Helena and Memek, they were on the way to the Rascor Plains led by the mysterious Manticore group.

I had loved the other worldly nature of Bastion and things were even more weird outside — the ash lands (which I think will play a role in a future novel), rain wall, flying islands, the whale ships, powerful fiends, etc.

Speaking of fiends, despite the presence of two Dread Blazes, the group were in dire trouble. The Queen came and rescued them, which I thought was suspicious — turns out it was due to her preeminence. The fiends were an increasing concern in recent months too.

More politics at the Fiery Shoals (along with more amazing worldbuilding) and The Queen's solution for Bastion seemed a good compromise for the time being. Would be interesting to see if Kyrie's research into fiends would play a role in the later books.

While Scorio was on a high about bringing peace, Praximar had something sinister brewing and Jova lost her high opinion of Scorio. The team game was interesting, especially getting a look at the powers of Manticore at play. The party afterwards didn't go well, with Ravenna cornering Scorio in yet more political play. It was great to meet Nox again, who continues to be a huge source of interesting tidbits.

Finally, the team departed from Bastion again and this time to the Chasm in the plains. Yet another amazing piece of worldbuilding and full of mysteries. I was excited about the training to come, but that turned out to be the start of dark events. Five months of hard labour for Scorio and Naomi to get rid of coal in their bodies was brutal to read. What I couldn't believe was that Leonis and Lianshi let them get depressed. Of course, it didn't help that Jova advanced to Flame Vault.

And then came the betrayal, which I caught on just before the artifact was deployed. And when Scorio was pushed into the gold crucible, I knew it would turn out to be a blessing for him in the end. Again, I was surprised that they didn't outright kill Scorio. Perhaps it is something to do with the lucky wind (mentioned in an earlier chapter by one of the Manticore Dread Blazes, wonder if that'll come up again).

The chapters covering two years of Scorio in the crucible got really depressing to read. Among the positives were mending his damaged heart, body now tempered by gold mana and advancement to Flame Vault.

At first, it was cathartic to read about Scorio going about his revenge and overcoming the Manticore Dread Blaze (with help from Pyre Lady Moira). But it became depressing to read when it continued, right till the end of the book. Somehow, Naomi escaping the execution was both believable and unbelievable. She too advanced somewhat similar to Scorio's time in the crucible, making use of silver mana in the Chasm. Their plan to bring down the flying island was insane, but somehow they managed to escape — probably because Dameon chose to flee instead of staying to fight. Wonder if Scorio will someday retrieve the rod.

Back to Bastion again. It was interesting to see Dameon and instructor Whip utilizing their powers. Dameon's trap ended up succeeding. A lot of powers described in this book reminded me strongly of Worm by Wildbow.

Poor Scorio, got trapped in the same way again. But Praximar didn't learn and foolishy threw him in the basement that so happened to host Pyre Lady Druanna as well. Scorio burning coal to call for Nox was cool (and foreshadowed earlier). I didn't get how Nox was able to overcome the coffin trap when powerful gold fiends couldn't.

It was good to see Lianshi and Leonis again, reborn and Tomb Spark already. But ultimately the group is no longer close like it was in the first book, which was a very sad outcome.

Jova joined Scorio again and together they managed to give Praximar a scare. When Iron Tyrant was called, I thought that perhaps he would take care of Praximar. However, Scorio managed to kill someone two levels above — really pushing the limits here, but then Scorio had managed to distract Imogen in the first book too.

So overall, this was a good follow up. But personally, a touch too dark (to be fair, that was to be expected) and especially the loss of group comradeship soured my enjoyment.

My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟☆

What others are saying

From James Olinde's review on goodreads:

This book (Rascor Plains) significantly expands not only the scope of the world, but also Scorio and his friend's understanding of just how much they still have to learn and grow. I won't give away any spoilers as I thoroughly enjoyed discovering them myself. I will simply say that the characters growth is significant and the imagination of Phil Tucker is impressive.

From Stephen Tillett's review on goodreads:

Diving straight into the book was like coming home, it felt like meeting up with old friends, and I had enjoyed the development style from reading Bastion. Watching Scorio, Naomi and friends develop their skills and relationships, as they travelled through the dangers of the plains. Once again fascinated by Nox as a character when they meet up again. The storyline twist and turns and there are so many surprises I lost count.