Reviewed by Rachel A Hyde, MyShelf.com
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Last year I gave the first two books of the Rai-Kirah trilogy rave reviews, voting them my choice for fantasy of the year. Here at last is the final epic part, and as I suspected, Carol Berg proves to have a lot more up her sleeve than just her arm.

Seyonne has been exiled from his homeland and is living apart from his wife (who wants to kill him) and his son (being fostered by Elinor). When an assassin tries to kill him, he realizes that all is not well with the Derzhi and rides forth once more to see what is going on. The emperor is dead and his son Aleksander is under suspicion of having done the deed. Soon, Aleksander has been disinherited in favour of his cousin and is on the run with Seyonne, making them the two most wanted men in the world. As if that isn't bad enough, Seyonne now knows that his own battles lie in another realm, and that the demons he once battled are even closer to him and the other Ezzarians more than mere allies. In a magical, cloistered realm, the Nameless One is imprisoned and if Seyonne sets him free then the world will end.

Seyonne, as ever, makes a wonderfully immediate narrator and a fascinating character, as does the equally flawed but heroic desert prince, Aleksander. This is an involved story, that does tend to drag a little during the chase across the desert. Maybe it is because it is not these parts of the tale that are so original, but once the characters reach the hidden demon realm, things definitely take off, and Carol Berg dishes up a plot and setting to conjure with. She breaks some of the worn clichés of fantasy fiction and unleashes the floodgates and lets a torrent of adventures come pouring out. I wonder what she is going to do for an encore, but you can bet that I will be reading it! Highly enjoyable.