Azhure and the others are more bearable than Axis, at the least.

For now...

I doubt that Douglass meant to make it this obvious, though.

I really hate how she treats her readers like idiots. Then again you'd have to be one to actually enjoy this crap.

She is quite relieved that it is not Borneheld, and that she did not “meet [him] again after so many years”, since there is “too much guilt associated with [him] for her to want to meet him again”

"Guilt" which completely vanishes after this. She does not give two short shits about her eldest son and did not even bother trying to contact him at any point before or after this, even to let him know that she's alive and loves him. It's so cruel

So, while Barsarbe keeps Raum in the tent, and only allows him to be talked to about “the most trivial queries about food or comfort”,

Jesus Christ, he's got a broken ankle! He's not dying of cancer!

“Stars alone [know]” that he could have inherited “his devotion to Artor and his military prowess from Searlas” (because that is totally inheritable).

What "prowess"? We've already established that Axis is a useless incompetent. Also note that the eeeevil Duke died when Bornheld was fourteen, so I doubt he had much time to train him either, especially given that it's stated in the text that he basically ignored the poor kid.

So… the Skraelings have been raiding the Avar? They do not like trees, so is Gorgrael pushing them to go to the Avarinheim already? Or do they only attack at the fringes, in which case they might be doing it on their own, possibly to prepare for an invasion? This is something we need to know a bit more about than we get here.

It literally never comes up again. The Avar are attacked by the Skraelings exactly once and that's the end of it.

Well, over to Azhure we go, who spends most of the time “wandering about feeling absolutely useless”.

That would be because you are useless, even after you get all those stupid Sueperpowers out of nowhere.

We get some more on the preparation of whatever they are making: Pease adds “dried berries, seasoning herbs and lard” to the flour. They are kneading the flour into “small round loaves” which Pease then puts in “the large waxy leaves of the odinfor bush”

All this detailed world-building for a race that ultimately doesn't even need to be in the story because they do NOTHING. You can so easily tell the author just got bored with them.

it is a “night when dreams and desires become reality”

Because that's all anybody dreams about or desires. Sex. How incredibly juvenile!

Barsarbe then breaks in to say that Azhure will have “no opportunity for Beltide excesses” if she does not stay with the clan.

Oh no she might avoid being repeatedly raped, how awful.

I am reasonably sure Barsarbe will become a Scary Sue to Azhure (and possibly Faraday).

Correct. Basarbe has just signed her own death warrant by - GASP! - not loving and worshipping Azhure! The nerve!

Even the “three older children” (that is Helm, Skali, and Hogni)

aka Nonentities Numbers #1-#3, like most of the Avar characters. Only three Avar will ever actually "matter" and even then that's not saying much.

Gorgrael has been born, and even now he is preparing to “push his forces south and destroy all before him”.

For no reason!

he did get the sense that he was not yet ready to face Gorgrael

Ah, the old favourite, "You Are Not Yet Ready". When in fact he doesn't need any of the stupid power-ups he gets to kill Gorge. All he needs is a random magical artefact he didn't earn, and a big heaping pile of Sue Ex Machina. It's really no different from Eragon getting all those power-ups and accessories, only to Sue Ex Machina Galby to death anyway. The magic sword, the belt, the ring, the freaking dragon... none of it mattered a damn.

Fleat gives Raum some “herbed teat the Avar brew[] and [drink] at every opportunity”

FUCKING TEA

I suppose that the Sentinels were so reticent because they knew Raum would not like it if he turned out to be the BattleAxe… but this is not helping anyone, either.

This is one of those books where the author only knows how to create "mystery" and "suspense" by making all the characters dishonest assholes. I hate it.

this is still a recap of things we already know and have seen.

Again, Douglass is treating her readers like morons.