this is one of the riftwar ones i'd come back to the most (alongside magician, rage of a demon king, talon of a silver hawk, wrath of a mad god, and magician's end) and until this read, i always thought roo really was a decent main character despite his flaws. unsure if its just what im going through right now, but roo was just a straight up shitty man. i always thought he was a more amoral version of silk from belgariad, but at least by this point in the timeline, roo is just straight up unlikeable. which is fine, i love a book with an unlikeable main character, but for whatever reason this felt grating on this reread.