Review: The author's best work to date
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 20, 2014
My main complaint about Raconteur's work is that he has some minor pacing issues and a HUGE issue with overall structure.  I've always held that if he'd managed to rein in the random asides, focus on a limited, controlled cast of characters instead of giving us the life story of every minor character in the world, and keeping the focus on the main conflicts and story-drivers, his work would transcend "interesting, but unremarkable" and move up to being outright great.Well... here it is.  All of the good stuff from the previous books, the interesting characters, the developed magic system, the intriguing world-building, and none of the rambling filler that makes series like Advent Mage extremely tedious at points.  Tightly plotted and written in a disciplined style with good conservation of detail without sacrificing characterization.Well played, sir.