For me, "The Icebound Land" serves to only develop the story for "Oakleaf Bearers" and for character development. It's not my favourite of the series, but is still well written and thought out. The one shining moment would be the scene on Skorghijl when Erak asks Will to demonstrate his knife throwing skills, and perhaps even the character development of Evanlyn/Cassandra. Halt's and Horace's POVs were a far more interesting read than Will's and Evanlyn's/Cassandra's POV.