Although other reviewers have praised her characterisation, I found her style rather dry and uninvolving. Action scenes are few and far between, and she rarely indulges in lingering, atmospheric descriptive passages. So on the whole - if, like me, you have a preference for taut action fantasy or high melodrama then you should stick to Martha Wells or Janny Wurts.

It's the first book I've read by Melanie Rawn and I'm hooked. In my opinion a good book is one that you can't/don't want to put down, that makes you want to read it when you're doing other things. This is one of them.

The characters are fully fleshed and believable - they make you care what happens to them. The author is also not afraid to kill off good characters and has also added several characters who are gay/lesbian, this is a nice touch. The society is matriarchal which is a bit of a change, although the women aren't raging feminists either, just strong and know what they want.

Ms Rawn also manages to include small humerous parts that you don't realise are funny at first, comments by the characters.

The book does dot about a bit, introducing you to different people, but this is so you get to know them sepaerately. Ms Rawn does a nice job of bringing characters together and also putting in small clues or hints that you remember when you get to a certain part.

The opening pages did give me the idea that the main male character would end up with one of the main female ones and in this I was correct - this was rather too obvious.

I was going to give this book 5 stars, but the latter point brings it to 4, I'm sure further installments will make me wish I had given it 5 !!

It's a good thick book, which I like, they keep me entertained for much longer but at no point did I think, this is unneccessary, it does need to be as long as it is.