Submitted by Alex (Sep 05, 2008)

Why was it necessary to include a summary of a good portion of the plot in this review? "We have a young hero, Ringil (Gil) Eskiath, with an impressive war history, sword-fighting skill and an impressively vicious sword called Ravensfriend, crafted from superb kiriath steel. Ringil is asked to return to his ancestral home in order to do his mother (Lady Ishil, the aristocratical wife of Lord Gingren of Eskiath) a favour, namely to find his cousin Sherin, sold into slavery. In order to do this, Gil has to travel, and so along the way we are introduced to more of his comrades – Egar the Dragonbane, the leader of a nomadic tribal group living on the steppes, and Archeth, the half-caste friend of Ringil, advisor to the mercurial Jhiral, the young Emperor of the Yhelteth Empire."