With Daindreath and Amira now prisoners of the Istovari, and Thadred, missing presumed dead by everyone, lost in the Cursewood with his new friend the kelpie, the trio has their work cut out for them. They’ll need to convince the Istovari that they’re allies, and hopefully, break Daindreath’s curse. But their pursuers are still on their trail, and time is not with them. Plus the Istovari are not particularly interested in anything except killing Daindreath. It may take all of their skills to escape the situation.
This was fantastic. Every one of our trio had quite a bit to do, and we learn a lot more about the overall situation. A number of questions about the curse are answered. We also get some fabulous character moments with things like Daindreath trying to making allies with the Istovari who want to kill him, Thadred’s return, and Amira’s reunion with her mother and grandmother. I really appreciate the fact that Amira has very mixed feelings about being reunited with her mother and her mother’s people. That felt far more realistic than them being happy families or her completely rejecting them. I also appreciated the author making the Istovari as a group varied in opinion and actions. Thadred gets to play a much larger role in this one and has further cemented his position as my favorite character in this series.
The pace of this one moves along at a clip, but there are plenty of moments that allow the characters to contemplate. Everything just works together really well and it feels pretty epic at times. I think this is the best of these novels so far, and I’m really looking forward to finding out what’s in store next for our heroes. Four out of five stars.