nougat37 reviewed on 5/29/2009

Helpful Score: 1

Unlike many fantasy books, this book starts in the middle, rather than at the beginning. This helped move the book along fairly well. While flashbacks, for me, normally seem to disturb the flow of time, the flashbacks happened at appropriate times and actually had to do with the events taking place in the book.

While in many books a character is either kind or angry or some other stereotype, I found the characters in this book to be fairly well-rounded. Their outbursts of anger or sadness didn't come across as out-of-character; I'd say they were actually very human. For once, I felt the author actually considered that even 'bad guys' have ulterior motives that aren't just for the love of evil and even past events in their lives that effect them in the present.

The elemental magic was incredibly tame (for the most part) in comparison to most fantasy books that involve elemental magic. Although the bards can control the elements through contacted the spirits (kigh), the spirits also have minds of their own.

The story itself is filled with emotions, betrayal, political intrigue, and all manner of great things. I really enjoyed this.

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