mackedoodle (United Kingdom) (2008/01/27):
An enjoyable read from the guilty pleasure school. This book delves too near the depths fo schlock fantasy for my taste. Many of the plot devices and archetypes are often used and over familiar from many other fantasy. If have read the authors magician trilogy many of the characters (particularly the protagonist) will have a recycled quality. The author's male characters often suffer from a 2 dimensional quality.The best fantasy (Donaldson, Tolkein, CS Lewis) uses the simple devise of the outside arriving and discovering the world. Thus the descriptions of the mechanics of the world (geography, politics etc) are discovered with the main characters and do not sound forced. This is not the case here where as the main character is already and inhabating the world and they there are clumsy pasages where these elements are explained by the narrator. This is annoying and breaks the digetic. The writing style is good as is the dialogue and the story is just allegorical enough to escape the grasping clutches of hack and slashdom. There are also some interesting and unique touches like the Siree that make the book enjoyably readable. The main problem is that the main characters (apart from the Wild One witch) are all annoying and smug. Its good and will pass the time but you'll have forgotten about it within a week.
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