I loved the pacing. Never a dull moment. Rarely do i immidiatly go out and buy a followup book but i did here.

Enjoyable characters and a good plot. I hope to see more of a certain Degan in book 2! ( )

Ágætis spennusaga með óvæntum plottum og snúningum með hraða og spennu. Hér segir frá Drothe sem er í þjónustu eins helsta glæpaforingja borgarinnar Ildrecca. Hann lendir í snúnum vanda þegar hann er sendur til að kanna árásir á glæpaflokka foringjans. Svo virðist sem að voldugir andstæðingar séu að herja á þá en um leið koma sökinni á aðra aðila og brátt fer allt í bál og brand. Að auki þá virðast allir vera á höttunum eftir fornu handriti sem geymir mikilvæg leyndarmál. ( )

Once again I wish we could give half stars. This is a classic 3.5 star book. I thought it was similar to Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos books and it is in away but again not really. I understand the author was trying to do a lot of stuff, but the book tended to bog donw a lot in the middle ( )

Liked the beginning - really liked it. It didn't finish as strongly as that but was still very enjoyable. Reminiscent of the Gentlemen Bastards sequence by Scott Lynch as it deals with a cocky underworld anti hero. Like Lynch a strong urban fantasy but with a lot more magic than other urban fantasies I ahve read which was handled well and kept fairly low key.

Fans of more traditional epic fantasy will be pleased with a lengthy and complicated history of the world hinted at throughout the book and an equally involved hierarchical system of 2 against which are set the various twists and turns of the plot. Still a gritty and dark novel even though.

A note from the author about the use of a slang called "cant" at the start of the book tries to excuse some of the seemingly random colloquialisms which are sometime fun but mainly just get in the way - Angels as a swear word instead of God! doesn't really work for me - and are not incorporated as seamlessly as Joe Abercrombie has done ("well met!" and "back to the mud" are almost part of my vernacular now).

The main character - Drothe - is a lot of fun, witty, dry, roughish but with integrity and him getting into and then out of various scrapes throughout the book as he unravels the mystery then tries to manipulate the end game makes great reading. There is sequel I understand but this ends with a satisfactory tying up of plot threads whilst at the same tie giving a clear jumping off point for the next book. ( )

This was, quite simply, one hell of a lot of fun. Fans of Brust's Vlad books and Glen Cook's Garrett PI are likely to find this streetwise, swashbuckling fantasy right up their (narrow, crooked, dangerous) alley. ( )