Stephen

I was very disappointed in this book. There were far too many meaningless characters, which made it hard to follow. It seems like the author was constantly trying to build in some suspense or depth, but it never went anywhere. There was no imagination or creativity in terms of the plot or characters. The writing was extremely lacking in color and flow. If I hear someone say "on the other hand", "unfortunately", "honestly" or several other words or phrases that were used over and over and over I am might have to punch them. This is the first time I have ever skipped or fast forwarded through portions of a book and the interesting thing is that I didn't miss anything. What was really annoying was the fact that in a couple of places where the author could have added some excitement the situation was just skipped over.

depicted the various voices and characters well

The only book related to magic where the power was explained, kind of neat touch. I also enjoyed the connection to actual historical figures and events.