So. This is the book where everything becomes darker and more serious. It's not a series overly filled with comic scenes to begin with, but there are even fewer of them here. On the flipside, though, there are several scenes of really touching emotion - Caolle's end, Jieret and Arithon, the Naming of little Jeynsa. Wurts' touch has become more deft over the time she has been writing these books, and there is less of the Big Dramatic stuff that was in the previous books.


What I really don't like, however, is how the Koriathain are written as such meddling, interfering women, while the Fellowship Sorcerors (all men) are such powerful and well-meaning chaps. Surely there could have been more nuance with this. Why did both groups have to be single sex? It annoys me a little. I hate stereotypes.