

Those are the responsibility of proofreaders and line editors. When i say 'poor editing,' i don't mean that the book was full of typos. This is a good book marred by poor editing.

So for sure skip the spoiler if you don't care to read a review focused primarily on technique and execution. No-my frustrations are all writerly in nature, and so of mostly no concern whatsoever to anyone who doesn't obsess over this shit for a living. I've hidden my charbroiled criticism under a spoiler-tag-for being spoilery, but also because my joking around might give you the impression that i hated this book-when in fact i did not. I can't talk about this book the way i want to without maybe ruining the story for people who might never even notice what bothered me, and the fact remains that nearly everyone i know really, really likes it.įor all my issues, there's still an awful lot i really liked about this story. durreson's marvelously inventive and promising free novella The Lodestar of Ys, i bemoaned the hurly-burly nature of the story-rushing from one interesting locale to another, abandoning nicely-realized settings and characters alike, just as i was growing to appreciate them.īut that's all i can really say without spoilers. The Shadow Tarn once defeated has woken before him and now he is the only one left to defend his new friends, his desert, and all that lies below the protective shadow of his wing. As Tarn and his new friends press deeper into the desert, their path grows perilous, and it soon becomes obvious that something dark and terrible has returned to the world.

Posing as a caravan guard, he sets out across the Alagard Desert in search of the spirit who made him smile.īut it isn’t just a single dragon who has woken again.

Determined to try again, Tarn takes human form and sets out to explore this new world, battling his grief and bewilderment as he realises all he once loved has faded into legend: his armies, his brothers and sisters, even the lover who grew old without him centuries ago. Tarnamell’s first venture back into the world finds him rebuffed by a feisty desert spirit who thinks he is nothing more than a large and scaly nuisance. A dragon wakes from a thousand-year sleep to a world he no longer recognises…
