Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

Why hello old school fantasy! Long time no see. I see that you still have dwarves of Moria, beautiful elves living in trees, farm boys turns great warriors, plucky princess and overwhelmingly likable characters. Oh and a cute dragon pet.

Not that I mind them much in this book. The writing and the pacing are good (I didn't yawn when reading this book) and the main characters, at least Pug and Tomas, make you want to hug them and muss their hair. Pug reminds me of Fitzchivalry Farseer, albeit with much less suffering.

Centering on a Duchy household, aside from the Duke himself and his sons, has an assorted staff from magician, priest, huntmaster, swordmaster, and so on. With the background of a war, the book actually take pains in describing what X is doing and experiencing in his or her capacity. So, there were politicking with the duke, commanding the army with the prince, organizing defense with the swordmaster, guerilla work with the magician and the huntmaster and so on. Pretty cool. I even forget sometimes they are having a war with aliens from other world coming from a rift. I just enjoy reading about competent people working together towards one goal.

There were lots of subplots, with the ancient, extinct (?) dragon riders (the Valyrians? Kidding.. ), the dark elves (of Mirkwood...argh, can't help it), the upcoming (now-adult) love triangle (le sigh) and the outworlders own strange war/political issues. I guess I'll find out more in the next book.