The final installment in the Mage Winds trilogy finds Elsepth, Darwind, Niara, Skiff and Firesong on a desperate mission. They must infiltrate the mage storm-wracked kingdom of Hardorn and assassinate King Ancar and the bloodmage Hulda or see Valdemar overrun by a possessed army. Making a dire situation even more perilous, Adept Mornelithe Falconsbane, arch-enemy of the Talysedras, has been pulled through a proto-gate and is helping Ancar. Should the tiny group's mission fail, all will be lost.

Riveting stuff - some loose ends get tied up. (Although some interesting action takes place off stage, so to speak.) A thrilling conclusion, albeit something of a cliff-hanger ending. ( )

The third book of The Mage Winds Trilogy and a mostly good conclusion to Elspeth's transition from Heir to Herald-Mage. Valdemar has been without a Herald-Mage for many generations but that changes when Elspeth travels outside the kingdom looking for aid in the coming confrontation with the Mages ruling the rival kingdom of Hardorn. Returning to Valdemar with new skills and new allies, Elspeth finds that Ancar of Hardorn also has a new ally...Recommended for fans of this author, but read the other two books in the trilogy first.

Plot: The build-up from the previous two books gets utilized in this one, although the main plot doesn't appear until the last third of the book. Until then it's side trips and side plots to show off the world and fill in a lot of background that is not really needed but is gratituous fan service.

Characters: Too many point of view characters for any of them to really develop sufficient depth; most interesting is the newcomer, since he comes with a lot of potential for development that actually gets used. The established characters don't grow, or if they do, they do it in very placative and blatant ways.

Style: What gets annoying about the book is that by returning into the established settings, all possible characters, settings, special terminology and ideas get utilized, which becomes grating very quickly. Also, any dialogue involving gryphons is virtually unreadable due to the duplication of 's' to portray their hissing.

Plus: The possession plotline. Relatively little romance and fawning over the pretty horsies.

Minus: Idiotic and stereotyped villains, very clumsy character development.

Summary: An average end to an average trilogy, only it fails to really end the trilogy but simply leads up to the next one. ( )