Rating: 
Summary: Action and Reaction
Review: This 4th book in the series is one that I think could have been left out of the story arc for it really doesn't expand the character development and goals of Garric to unite the kingdoms or go anywhere in the big picture until the last few sentences where he decides to place his father as regional ruler of the his home island Haft.Like Janny Wurts' recent Peril's Gate, so too does this book spends its entire length (467 pages) tracking the heroes'(mostly supernatural) coming and going from point A to point B resulting in nothing much being developed in the story line apart from bloody battles to conquer a warring population and make them subsurvient to King Garric's rule. There is very little insight provided into the main characters' real motivations and personal growth as they confront the conflicts thrust upon them. They are becoming boring and that is not a place where the reader wants to be at this stage of the saga. King Carus' takeover of body and mind was the most interesting development in Garric's story line. I would like to see deepening of characters like the lovelorn and terribly conflicted Ilna who, despite her superhuman abilities, has a richness of character than I find attractive and very compelling. She is my favorite for her very human eccentriticies and crankiness. Cashel, Liane and Sharina are almost too good to be true and renders them somewhat monochromatic to this reader. I like Drake's writing style immensely and have enjoyed the three books preceeding this one.I do hope he juices up character development to make this a more challenging and satisfying feast in the next installment of this series.
Rating: 
Summary: More of the same
Review: This is a very entertaining fantasy series, though you need to start with the first volume, Lord of the Isles, because it's pretty much all one story. It will catch your interest immediately, and you'll care about the main characters right from the start. (These books are not what I'd normally expect from David Drake, who usually writes military SF with an emphasis on blood and guts.) The first volume is the best, but this one is just as good as the others. In fact, it's almost identical to the others. Sadly, each new volume is nearly indistinguishable from the rest. First, the characters are widely separated in time and/or space, they have their individual adventures as they struggle to return, and then they're reunited for the ending. I keep hoping that the next volume will keep them together for the immense - and interesting - work of building and maintaining the kingdom, but it never happens. Frankly, the same story told in every volume is getting a bit old. Another reviewer mentioned the "Robert Jordan syndrome." Like Jordan, has Drake realized that he can keep fans perpetually buying new books in a popular series by just never going anywhere with the story? Is this just a way to extend the series as long as possible, or doesn't he know where he wants to go next? I'm still giving this 4 stars, because I love the characters and I guess because I really loved the first couple of volumes. But I'm very disappointed with this book; it's certainly not bad but it's nearly identical to the previous two. I can't say you'd miss anything if you just skipped it and waited until (if) Drake decides to go on with the story in some future volume.
Rating: 
Summary: YUUUUUCK!
Review: What else is there to say? Why don't they let me choose a negative number of stars for my rating?
Rating:
Summary: Cruising on Auto-Pilot; a Walkthrough
Review: When i read the previous volume in the "Isles" series (Serant of the Dragon, q.v.), i greatly enjoyed it, but something about it bothered me. Now, having read this volume, and considering the matter, i have finally put my finger on it, i think -- these books read like using a "walkthru" cheatsheet to go through one of the old InfoCom computer text games -- "Zork", possibly, or the brilliant InfoCom version of "Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy". Which is to say that each character goes through a series of adventures which contain numerous decision-points and always choose the right way to go when they have a choice; secondary characters, though interesting and sympathetic (or not), are introduced, hang around until they fulfill their sole programmed function, and then exit, usually fatally. What suspense there is comes primarily from narrative technique; rotating among four story threads that SEEM divergent but will come together by the end, cutting away from a given thread -- just as it looks as if Things Might Be Bad For Our Hero(ine) -- to resolve the cliffhanger left in another thread in the last chapter. That said, it's really the characters i read these for -- Garric (and his ancestor, King Carus, who shares his head) and Cashel, Ilna and Sharina and so on, all of whom are interesting in their own right, and eminently suited for the sorts of challenges that Drake's plots throw at them. Mechanical as the storyline might be, i enjoyed the ride, and i intend to be there for the next volume, also. I mean, a roller coaster is locked to a track, mechanical and predictable and repetitious -- but we still ride the same coasters over and over and get the same thrills. Same for Drake and this series.
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