Review: This book, 3.  The series, 1.  Call it a 2.
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 08 29, 2013
PS Power is one of the more prolific authors in the dirt-cheap-fantasy e-book subgenre, and 90% of the time I would say if you see the name and the book is "book 4" or lower in its series, it's worth a read.This, unfortunately, is the other 10%.Power writes pretty wordy novels about thoughtful, but ultimately screwed up people that have to work through their issues to access and properly use their inherently awesome powers.  This, to be fair, is a formula that hasn't gotten old over several series.  However, the protagonist here is not so much "struggling, insecure genius" as "blatantly objectivist arse who is usually only in the right because the author forces the universe into pretzel shapes to make him right".You'll lose your suspension of disbelief that the hero is likable, actually half as skilled as the author informs us he is, or any kind of good man, very or otherwise, within about 20 pages.  And that's if you're drunk.My advice: Pass.  If you really want to read about this terrible guy being handed the win by virtue of Author-powered plot magic, go read "Sword of Truth", Richard getting owned by everything in the world and then whining is at least _funny_.