This is a good trilogy that does tread water here and there, but sometimes this just has the effect of gathering the suspense. I always say that the trick of writing good fantasy is not necessarily in being breathtakingly original, but in how good the writer’s world building skills are. Crotheny is a remarkably well realized place, with its own history, dialects, argot and religion that are often only hinted at, which shows what an exhaustive underpinning of creation lies beneath this series. In short, this is the sort of book that makes me remember why I enjoy good "high fantasy" so much. Besides some interesting and lively characters, there are plenty of battles, monsters, politicking and breathless adventures. Keyes has the knack of tossing up lots of plots and sets of characters and juggling with them, hopping from one group to the next as the chapters change. It has the effect of keeping the tale bubbling merrily away like a witch’s cauldron. This isn’t even the last book in the series, so I look forward to the next one.