My rating: 4 of 5 stars
For starters, I liked this book. What’s not to like? There’s some classic Vlad action (back in classic Vlad timeline). There’s some Cawti/Norathar bits. There are gods. And Devera. There’s (a lot of) Paarfi-written elegance (including Paarfi writing Vlad, which is worth the price of admission). There’s Khaavren. There’s Vlad AND Khaavren. And Pel. There’s the Empress. There’s even a bit of Aliera. Therre’s even a big, if vague, overarching plot.
Every little bit is fun to read. But … the total of the little bits somehow … less than the parts. The story felt fragmented, unfocused. It skips over time and space in ways that aren’t always clear, almost like Brust was trying to do a bit of narrative house-cleaning, and not really willing or able to focus on anything more than a short story or five, centered around a small silver figurine of a tiassa.
Not that a collection of Dragaeran short stories wouldn’t be appealing, but it still just missed the mark from being amazing. Maybe because, not having reread the series for a while, I was struggling to remember all the various characters and storyline bits that Brust (re)introduced. Was she in a previous book? Do we know him (and from which series)? Oh, wait, that sword. Etc.
And let’s not get into some of the causality loops.
Still, it was a fun, enjoyable book — a quick read with dedication (and I was dedicated to reading it). Indeed, the biggest problem I had was that it was over too soon.