Hari Gopal

Protagonist is an ‘Angry Young Man'... Check. Has great hidden powers... Check. Meets a beautiful maiden at the beginning of the tale... Check. Falls madly in love with her... Check. Has powerful friends (Wizard / Warrior)... Check. His enemies are even more powerful, and are absolutely Evil (with a capital E)... Check. I could go on and on.

If someone were to sit and create a template for Fantasy-Action-Adventure genre, they'd be wasting their time - ‘Cuz this book is IT.

And I can't really recommend it or, the rest of the 12 books in the series. If its action you're looking for, there are better options - Gemmell's works, for example. If its quality of writing and a believable world, there are better - check out Guy Gavriel Kay or Dan Simmons. And if you have the time to invest in a epic storyline, you could do better there as well - see David Eddings' or Robert Jordan's work (though those aren't exactly high quality either, just better).

This book is just so... mediocre. I felt like stopping more than a few times, but I plowed through - to an ending that I saw coming a mile (and a half) away.

I loved this book. Just thought that I'd write that down here. In case, I forget.

Quite a different take on the “army-grunt gets take lead” trope. Thoroughly entertaining.

The ending of this book was a disaster - there's no resolution, and the supposed cliffhanger is a piece of information that became obvious about halfway through the book. Avoid.

If there's one thing I can't stand in books, it's when the plot is driven by the mistakes made by the protagonists.

Unlike the previous books in this series, it's difficult to root for the heroes and heroines at any point of time. You see them make so many mistakes that when their actions catch up to them, all you're left with is a feeling of crushing inevitability.

These mistakes are so bad that the only way out that the author could find was deus ex machina: the introduction of a literal, physical God.

For a series that did so well, so far, this is a disappointing conclusion.