*** Warning: This review contains spoilers!! ***
Well, I agree with my son, who said this book somehow didn't seem to "fit" with the rest of the series so far. I think because the threat - a cult involving a false prophet in collusion with raiding bandits - seemed convoluted and unlikely to have actually succeeded in overtaking 5 kingdoms before finishing off Hibernia with Clonmel. It's clear that King Ferris was a weak leader, and that's why Clonmel is in such danger, but does that mean that all 5 of the other Hibernian kings were equally weak?! And if Tennyson is so much the sole leader that Halt is confident that by taking him down, the whole house of cards will fall, then how is it possible that the other 5 kings didn't manage to take back their kingdoms once Tennyson left their borders? NO ONE else in a position of power in all of Hibernia saw through the con game!? Only the Araluen Rangers were smart enough to see it and brave enough to fight it? All very hard to believe, even in this make-believe world.
Even Halt's royal past seemed a bit much.
And, I was sorely disappointed when the author seemed to make Will momentarily less intelligent than he had led us to believe. With all of Will's quick-thinking stratagems, you mean to tell me that when he was tasked to follow a Genovesan known for poisoning their victims, and when he saw that Genovesan leave Horace's tent, it didn't occur to him that he poisoned Horace's water!?!? That was just too out of character.
Horace seemed to increasingly take on a kind of comic relief role, as his constant state of hunger was a frequent joke. That, I enjoyed! Also, with his integrity and straightforwardness, Horace is perhaps becoming one of my favorite characters.
Lastly, for those who might care, towards the end of the book there is a battle scene that ends, very swiftly, with a beheading.
Overall, a slower read than others in the series, and it never really got me hooked. Still, can't wait to read the next book in the series!
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