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Submitted by Christie 
(Apr 04, 2003)This book had a good premise, but very poor execution. The characters are poorly developed. While pieces of their past and motivations are given, it just isn't enough to make you care about any of them. The women are all divided into two groups: insanely evil or complete victims. The men are either "heroes" or rapists. There is no in between, no shades of gray. Even Shailiha, the nearest thing there is to a heroine, wavers between evil and victim, never once truly establishing an real identity for herself. It took me forever to get through this novel, simply because I didn't really care what happened to any of the characters. There was no page-turning suspense or drama, just a plodding along through the story to arrive at a convenient conclusion. I will not be reading the sequel.
Submitted by Timlagor 
(Dec 18, 2002)Mr Newcomb writes a great story, BUT...
... he writes it really very badly indeed. If you read this book you should become heartily sick of the following phrases:
"what he saw next"
"he instictively knew"
"he would remember for the rest of his life"
(often they even ome together).
The characters are also very weak. ALthough you can understand Tristan's reluctance to be monarch at the beginning of the story, the complete lack of seriousness and maturity with which he faces the ensuing tragedy is quite astounding until you see the supposedly 350+ year old wizard who is his mentor -infantile is the word that springs to mind. The women were even more shallow. The dialogue was also less than convincing.
Having said all that I enojoyed the plot enormously and managed to finish the book. If he could jsut cut the phrases mentioned above and most of the words ending '-ful' the other faults would be much easier to overlook.
Submitted by Marc Kelly 
(Dec 18, 2002)It is a really good book. I had doubts about it when I first purchased it but I always give a book the chance to prove it is good and it is. There are concepts that have been around for ages i.e. a race of flying creatures called The Minions of Night and Day. Now these were a refreshing change of race. Normally its elves and dwarves etc etc. But theses are very different as they have been bred. The characters were great and the storyline while the outcome is the same of a lot of books. It was still brilliant. I beleive that a new talent has emerged in Robert Newcomb. Though it's still not good enough for a 5 in my books.
Submitted by Rodney Powell 
(Oct 31, 2002)Robert Newcomb has fashioned a incredible fantasy epic with intensity so powerful I almost felt I was there.He tells the story of the land of Eustracia, a country that was focuspoint of a terrible sorcerous war between wizards and group of hideously evil sorceresses who plotted to enslaved the land three centuries ago and who were defeated and banished to beyond the seas.This novel also is the story of the reluctant monarch to be, Tristan who will soon become king of this land and who like his twin sister Shailiha had magical endowed blood which will make them and particular Tristan powerful in the use of magic.Tristan will need all this and his warrior skills to defeat the sorceresses who after three centuries have hatched a diabolical plot to seize control of Eustracia and kidnap Shailiha and use her in a spell to remake the world in the own terrible image! Newcomb's epic fantasy novel has all of the trimmings to make this a classic: awesome world-building as his world comes alive with all of it's beauty, terror, magic and wonder.Powerful scenes of battles as you will watch in horror as the sorceresses's brutal army of wingmen called Minions lay seige upon Eustracia lead by the sadist Kluge who Tristan will vow to kill and finally stirring battle between Tristan and Kluge!Characters come alive through the pages of this unforgettable novel such Wiggs, master wizard who will Tristan seek to stop the sorceresses mad scheme.Geldon-the dwarf slave who will risk his life to defeat sorceresses. Faegan, the powerful wizard who's tortured by coven of sorceresses and who knows how to defeat them. Failee, the leader of the coven who's dabbling in the dark magic has made her insane and finally Shailiha, Tristan's twin sister who is tortured in body and mind by the coven and turned into the fifth sorceress. One minor quibble in this book though and I think this might explain why few female readers will enjoy this book.It really doesn't have too many good women characters in it.Most of the female characters in this novel are absolutely evil and sadistic.Other than that pick of this book and journey with Tristan, wigg as they battle for their lives against some of the most evil villians and villianess that had ever been made upon the printed page!
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