Naiche A. (Naiche) reviewed on 10/22/2009 + 91 more book reviews

This is a fun and entertaining read, with lots of style and derring-do. There are pirates, robots, assassins, mysterious politicians, armless kings, and lost orphans trying to find their families - as well as intrigues, subplots, and chase scenes!

However, Stephen Hunt seems to have tried to write such a huge epic with so many cool features that he loses track of a lot of them. Important, life-changing moments come up repeatedly, but are lost from memory almost as quickly.

I'm uncertain as to the intended audience of this book. It reads like a young adult novel, and stars two early adolescents coming of age, but there are many scenes of disturbingly graphic violence and many key plot points which require a fair political knowledge to grasp.

All in all, a book I enjoyed a whole lot while reading, but which had so many incongruities that I can't call it great writing.

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