This book is so much more dreary and pure evil than the rest of the trilogy. It's even more dreary and evil than the end of Dragon of Spring Dawning. It's well written, has a fantastic story arch and some great insights into the complicated brotherly relationship (but War of the twins is better is this aspect). I didn't like the portrayal of Tanis, he seemed more impulsive. I like that he apparently swears a lot. Even though I read it before when I was teen, I didn't think what happened to Kitiara actually happened. I thought Tanis stopped it somehow. I guess not. I did enjoy the ending with Tas looking over everything in his pouches, though there was something in there that I couldn't place. Overall, solid, and couldn't put it down (read it in 2 days). But the second part of the trilogy is better.