This is the third book in THE LAST HERALD MAGE trilogy (following MAGIC'S PAWN and MAGIC'S PROMISE). After the first two, I was pretty disappointed. There is none of the tension of the first book or suspense of the second book. Everything just seems to happen and then he's going after this antagonist that is even more poorly established than Lackey's usual. Unlike the previous two books, I felt nothing for the characters in this book. The story was interesting, but it needed the antagonist to be more firmly fleshed out and the characters to give us something more to connect with. This book was definitely a let down after the first two books, but it was a somewhat satisfying conclusion to the series.