Pre09:
Characters: Loved them! The lead and the prince are just awesome.
Plot: Loved it. Bond slowly forming and rebuilding of a man. Bit of court intrigue tossed in.
Style: Little slow, but not much. Probably just tainted by the later books. Very solid. (Logical and Fantasy mixed.) ( )

(Amy) Well, this is the most traditional fantasy I've read in quite some time. We've got the once-great brought low, we've got the cruel lordling who Sees The Error Of His Ways, we've got a conquered land yearning to breathe free. We've got demons and sorcerors and illusionists. Whee!

But despite the extreme genericness of the book as portrayed by blurb text or by two-sentence summation, it's actually quite an enjoyable book, and I am rather looking forward to the sequel. Sometimes a bit of fun, good old-fashioned generic fantasy is exactly what one is looking for. Just . . . don't look here for too awfully much innovation (though the method of demon-hunting is pretty nifty).
(http://weblog.siliconcerebrate.com/ze...) ( )

I was bored and suffering from insomnia one night and picked this up to past the time. I started it at 10pm and did not put it down till I finished it a 7am...needless to say, I liked it very much. I twas all due not due to the plot...which while good was not too far off from most fantasy plots, but due to the great and fully realized characters. They lived and breathed and you felt like you were going through everything with them, and standing right besides them. The writer has great skill in this department. If you love good, character driven stories...this is a good one. ( )

I really can't begin to explain how much I love Carol Berg's writing. This is her first published book of her first series, and yet after having read the rest of her published work--a standalone novel, a novelette, and two other series--the Rai-Kirah trilogy remains strong and satisfying. I recently revisited this series, and as I always am with each new Berg book, I continued to be thoroughly enchanted by her mastery of characterization and her exploration of the nature of relationships, especially friendship, not to mention her penchant for finding ways to put a unique twist on what might at first seem to be standard fantasy fare. No one I've recommended any of Berg's books to has been disappointed; her books are truly worth a special space on the bookshelf! ( )

I loved this book. It was superb through the middle. Towards the end it got a little goofy but I still highly recommend it. The characters are well-developed and very different story line. ( )