cwar
Hell's bells! This book would have been better if it was the first book of the series. I really enjoyed it, but it followed the formula of the first book very closely, just swapping out the evil warlock of the first book for various types of werewolves of the second book. I've been told the third book is where the series starts to pick up, so I'm excited to continue the series. I really do like the characters, setting and I enjoy the campiness of the noir narration. The fusion of detective and wizard really has me sold and like a newly turned werewolf claiming his first kill, I'm afraid I'll be unable to stop.
Great finish to an awesome fantasy series. Been awhile since I've read a serious fantasy that wasn't asoaif and this definitely scratched that itch. The characters were all quite interesting (Glokta was my personal favorite) and they were all flawed. A very dark trilogy, I look forward to reading the stand alone novels.
Seems to have a lot of popular trope-y elements (magical academy, roman society, main protagonist is an undercover outsider etc) but it's all quite well done and there's plenty here to look forward to as the series progresses.