Pretty good! A 3.5 overall. Weaker than the first in the series, but by no means a poor book. I devoured it in less than a day.

Feist's issues with pacing are still present in this book - a major issue with the first - but significantly less so.

The plot felt underwhelming, focusing on a gradual build-up. This didn't feel like a fantasy story, more the first half of a bildungsroman, but I believe it set groundwork which will carry through to the rest of the series, and without this book a piece would be missing. I wish this story had been a b-plot to another story though, or even several. This book's b-plot was by far more exciting and I'd prefer it to have been the main storyline.

As in the first book, the major strength of this writing is in the characters. Roo got a lot of flesh to his character, and it was very intelligently done. I can't say I like him, but I can say he's a complex and well-created character. They all are, in some way, and this is where Feist's true strength lies.

Another of his strengths, world building, was less evident here. However, this didn't feel like a slip, more of a narrative choice - the narrator of most of the novel isn't really interested.

A *lot* of gratuitous sex, but thankfully nothing obscene.

I'll also point out that mine is a twelfth printing and was filled with typographical mistakes, wrong words, punctuation errors - things an editor or proofreader should have picked up, or that should have been ironed out within the first five printings at least. I kept a pencil behind my ear to mark them all.

So, overall, a good book, and I intend to continue reading this series. Should you pick it up? If you like fantasy, yes.