content: I've never read Michael Stackpole and was pretty happy with the first book in this series..couldn't wait until the second one came out. Of course, the ending was a bit of a shock (the author's own notes warn about ill will towards him because of it) but I still was hoping the story would pick up a bit of speed and resolve itself in the third installment. What did I find? Ho-Hum...I had to force myself to finish. Nothing is resolved to any satisfactory measure - the most important character is a lump of clay (literally) and the other characters just seem to start fading away. We can't always expect a happy ending, but there didn't even seem to be one at all! A thoroughly disappointing way to spend some hard earned cash. Next time one of his books come out I'll be sure to see if my local library has it first so I at least don't bother spending my own money.