This book is one of Rusch's first published novels, and it shows. I thought the book had a lot of promise in the beginning--and it wasn't bad--but it got too complicated too quickly, trying to fit too many characters and too many plots into a fairly short book.

There are two threads at the beginning of the book, one following the magician Seymour (or really, following the bard Byron, since Seymour is following him after a very short time), and one following the young prince Adric. When they come together, about three-quarters of the way through the book, it's in a way that I never predicted. That sounds like a good thing, but even when I thought back through it with my new knowledge of how they fit together, I could find no clues. It could have been a really cool revelation if there had been a few clues that I could have said on hindsight "oh, that's what that meant," but that didn't happen.

As I said, there were too many characters; several even had POV sections only to disappear or at least fade away. I would have loved to have seen more of the faerie-like Enos, and though they did take a greater part toward the end, I never really got to understand the beings. I think there would have been more room for them, and other world-building (I'm not even certain what technology level the country had), with a more judicious choice of characters.

The ending was disappointing as well; I won't spoil it, but it seemed rushed and some secrets I hoped would come to light never did.