Book 4 in the second series of the Dies the Fire universe - and yeah, I confess, I loved it.

The fantasy element is growing stronger and stronger, but that's OK - Stirling has me firmly hooked and long for the ride. We're seeing a LOT of character change in Rudi (now Ard Righ Artos), but I think, given all that's happened to him over the past few books, it would be highly implausible if we didn't.

I still absolutely love the dialogue and banter (this appears to be a running theme in my reviews - I won't try to argue that)

The plotting? Probably not one the strongest books in this series, but at the same time, I'm having so much fun coming along for the ride on the journey that I don't actually care which direction it's going in.

Without wanting to give any spoilers, there's some wonderful happy-making stuff right at the end, and I kept on not-quite-trusting it and expecting Stirling to do some thoroughly Jossian ripping my heart out and leaving me on a cliff-hanger - so I kept my guard up the whole way through it and probably didn't enjoy it nearly as much as I could have.

My one major complaint is that I should know by now not to read these books on an empty stomach. Seriously... Mr Stirling's description of various feasts always make my stomach rumble!

So yeah - all up, I've given this one an 8/10. It was good reading, and I'm looking forward to Book 5 - but at the same time, I'm not on the edge of my seat waiting for it - I'm happy to just read it when it gets here :-)