The second book in Feist's series The Serpent Saga, a subseries of The Rift Wars. Not one of my favorites by him. The story focuses on Rupert (Roo) from book 1 and his rise to fame, as merchant in Krondor. I had liked Roo a lot in the first book, but here he turns into a philandering husband and pretty bad father. After finishing the book I decided that all this, plus the story of his rise, needed to be told to continue the epic events to come . My favorite character Nakor has a few appearances and so that satisfied me and I enjoyed spending time with Jimmy The Hand and meeting his extended family. Seems like Jimmy has taught his grandsons a few of his tricks.

All in all a decent read and one more down in my mission to read Feist's entire catalog.