Kim M. (Eucalia) reviewed on 12/10/2008 + 52 more book reviews

This is the story of an innkeeper in a small village who used to be much, much more than an innkeeper. When Chronicler stumbles upon this inn, they strike a bargain that the innkeeper will tell his life story in three days and in return Chronicler will write it word for word and then leave him alone. This novel is day one of the telling. As such, don't expect any of the threads of this story to be wrapped up by the end of the novel. It doesn't leave you on a cliffhanger, but it definitely leaves you wondering what's going to happen next. As the innkeeper himself says at the end of this novel, "That should do for now, I imagine. We have all the groundwork now. A foundation of story to build upon. Tomorrow we'll have some of my favorite stories." The writing itself was very good with some wonderfully brilliant descriptions. One of my favorites was when he was describing a time of hopelessness and says that it was so hopeless that women didn't bother naming their children. Now that's hopeless! This had an undistinguished low-tech fantasy setting with a modicum of magic thrown in. There were some very interesting characters, but lots of humdrum characters thrown in too. The main character himself was interesting, but despite his supposed brilliance often did really annoyingly dumb things. Overall, this is a very good book which I'd recommend to fans of fantasy, but it isn't as earth-shattering as I had expected after reading all the rave reviews.

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