If there's one thing that really stands out about this book it's the racism. This whole series is kind of known for its casual racism (what with all the swarthy villains and evil Arab-inspired races and so forth) but this book takes it to a whole new level. Even after the rest of the series it's honestly shocking. And Dever very obviously thought he was on the right side with this one, because there's a very blatant anti-racist message wedged in there, it's just completely at odds with every other part of the book.

If there were two things that stood out, the second would be that the new protagonist is making up for lost time in getting people killed who try to help him. Especially sailors. You get on several ships in this story and I don't think any of them make it. To help a Kai Lord basically marks you for death.

The actual gameplay is pretty good; it's possible to die, but wit the right choices and a little bit of luck it's also possible to survive even on your first attempt. So in that regard it's pretty good. It's just, wow, the racism. Seriously.