A remarkably non-epic book for a tale of wizards, a kingdom sliding into civil war, and talking beasts (incl. a dragon). Not epic, that is, in the usual sense. To be sure, it has all the elements, but they're beside the point. The point instead is a young, powerful woman wizard who can't escape the expectations of power; she wants to be left alone, to not have to make choices that affect others, but this is a luxury even she can not afford. No one can.

And despite all her determination to the contrary, though she sees it as wasteful and foolhardy, bit by bit she begins to be influenced by love. But this is not a great romance in the usual sense, either -- it would be better to say, she can not help becoming devoted to certain things, that her heart grows attached. Her choices are influenced in ways she tells herself are mistakes even as she makes them. As her love grows, the mistakes compound.

In the end, her choices are irrevocable; war is unavoidable; everything she is devoted to is no longer hers to control. It is, in a sense, a kind of adulthood, touched by responsibility, vulnerability, and regret.

But the love she has given is not wasted. And to say more would be to spoil one of the finest eucatastrophes I have ever read.