Disjointed novel, enjoyable in places but jumped around too much and thus hard to follow. Also non of the characters were in the least bit likable. ( )

Well presented story of an adolescent thief, his friends, and the people he robs. Throw in some demons, a mysterious world, a murderous dagger and the author gives a compelling story of danger and menace in 18th century London. Tersias, the title character, is a blind prophet boy who can communicate with the underworld beings, and answer questions of the future. Important magicians (both true magic wielders and charlatans) want the knowledge to confirm their experiments in manipulating people and winning the world. This is basically a novel of worldly corruption and power mad leaders versus moderately corrupted people who are bad but not evil. Cold, dark and evil, the book does have a theme of goodness that wins in the end. Eventually. Recommended. ( )

I wanted to like this book, especially after really enjoying Wormwood, but I just found that it had something missing, which I couldn't pinpoint at first. It was probably almost as good as Shadowmancer. It isn't written badly, and I think that the story is OK, but it doesn't have the deep sense of intrigue which a book like this needs to work, Wormwood had it, Shadowmancer did to a slightly lesser degree, but I didn't feel it in this one as much, though it was there in places. I perhaps just wasn't in the mood for reading it, and was younger when I read the other two, that could explain it, but I don't think it was just that. The author definitely knows how to create an atmosphere, as he has shown in his less recent books, and it was here with good force in this book. But I think what lets this book down more than anything else is the characters, I had no problem with them in the other books, but here they just seem difficult to identify with on the intimate level which is necessary for a book to be great. For example the protagonist Jonah is by profession a bit of a highway man, pointing guns in the faces of his innocent victims, and threatening them in no uncertain terms, then the author later credits him with selfless compassion towards other characters he barely knows. I wouldn't recommend this to a first time G.P Taylor reader, as you might not be bothered to read another after this, which would be a shame. The same applies to those who want to read a book in this genre because they enjoyed Harry Potter, or Phillip Pullman. To Either of these audiences I would say read Wormwood, and if you enjoy it and want to read more, read Shadowmancer, and if you still want to read more, read this, but don't expect it to be quite as good. This sounds like I'm giving it a bad review, well, it isn't a bad book as such, and you can do worse, but it is average. I know the author can do better, so read his others, and you should enjoy them. ( )