Pratt's first novel in the Pathfinder series was one of my favourites, so I was looking forward to catching up with beleaguered alchemist Alaeron once more. I was not disappointed. Pratt has written another fun diversion that I happily ate up over a long weekend.

Alaeron has come back to the hated Technic League for one last job, in a bid to stop the flow of assassins since he defected, and staunch his never-ending curiosity. With street rat Skiver by his side, will he be able to make it out of the leagues clutches with mind and body intact?

There's nothing especially outstanding about Reign of Stars, but it all just *works*. Pratt's strength is probably his pacing. I never got a sense I was reading a campaign, and the narrative was engaging and moved at a clip.

Alaeron remains smart when it comes to gadgets and dumb when it comes to humans; it would be easy to overplay this trait and lean on it to heavily. Pratt flirts with that but always backs off, leaving Alaeron a more interesting and three dimensional figure. He also manages to squeeze a bit of character development in there, too.

With a nicely written climax that references and builds on what came before, Paizo has once again put out a very enjoyable stand-alone sword and sorcery novel.