A fast paced romp

Definitely worth a listen! A plot that is both entertaining and briskly paced, centred around the most memorable character in the Daindreth series. The romance ingredient is strong but suits the story nicely.

The main characters, Thadred and Sair, are fun and engaging. And Lleuad, the stalwart kelpie, is absolutely endearing and funny.

The writing style is more relaxed compared to the main series, and has many more interesting turns of phrase, either funny or apt - or both.

No flaws then? Well, the plotting all-too-frequently leaves holes large enough to drive a team of horses and a carriage through. A rewrite or three would have fixed that. [Spoilers ahead] For example: when the captured Kadra’han is liberated by what very obviously must be a cythraul, this fact is promptly completely ignored by everyone — including the main character Thadred, the “High Inquisitor, tasked with hunting escaped cythraul demons across the land” — until, to everyone’s utter astonishment, the cythraul shows up in the middle of the plot at a later point. Then there’s Caa Iss being able to kill the Istovari matriarch despite being incorporeal, when the Daindreth saga has been clear on the point that cythraul without hosts can’t personally harm humans. Another plot hole is when Caa Iss and his Kadra’han flee the ancient temple and leave the captive children behind, only to attack the Governor’s palace in order to regain the children ... instead of just bringing the children along in the first place![//spoilers] And so on.

The author’s reading has become generally nice, and sometimes very good.

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