Submitted by Recent Reader (May 15, 2010)

Having recently picked up this book, enticed by Mr. Morgan's clever prose, I ended up very let down. The writing is very good but I found the plot unnecessarily vague and the constant shift of viewpoints awkward and jarring. I have no problem with sex in my novels but when the scent of seminal fluid is described in detail at least ten times, it moves beyond the realm of edgy into the realm of erotic fiction. And every sexual partner our hero has, he physically manhandles almost immediately afterward, demeans the sex they just had or calls them homophobic slurs. I found this neither entertaining nor ironic, and it revealed a tragic hypocrisy about the main character. The ribald language followed the same lines, several characters using the F word with an eloquence befitting teenage conversation. It was off-putting, like it was there just to be there, adding nothing to the story or the development of character personality. Splatterhouse violence and potty mouths do not make dark fantasy. I expected more.

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."