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Rating: 
Summary: Traitor's Moon
Review: "Traitor's Moon" begins a couple of years after the end of "Stalking Darkness", when things are going badly for Skala in the war against Plenimar. Queen Idrilain decides that her country's only hope is to get aid from the Aurenfaie, so she sends her daughter on a diplomatic mission. She is accompanied by our heroes, Seregil and Alec, as well as Beka and her soldiers.The biggest problem with this book is the first two hundred pages. After a single big action sequence, things slow down quite a bit. After the band of characters enters Aurenen, a lot of time is spent on infodumps about the society there. I found this disappointing since Flewelling had managed to keep the plot moving at a good pace throughout the first two books of the series. Fortunately, things kick back into gear after they reach the city of Sarikali, and we get intrigues, a new archvillain, a murder mystery, and more. Overall, "Traitor's Moon" should be satisfactory to anyone who's enjoyed this author's other works.
Rating: 
Summary: A Welcome Return to Flewelling's World
Review: Continuing her well-received Nightrunner Series, Lynn Flewelling's Traitor's Moon picks up two years after the end of Stalking Darkness. Lovers Seregil and Alec have spent the intervening time in a self-imposed exile in the wilderness of Skala, but while they have been far from the intrigues of court life, the bitter war with the Plenimarans has continued unabated. Skala is facing almost certain defeat, and the dying Queen Idrilain sees only one hope for salvation. They must renew their alliance with Aurenen, the mysterious and mystical land to the south.
The Queen is sending her youngest daughter, Princess Klia, along with one of her best military leaders, Beka Cavish, but they need an escort, someone who understands this strange land in which outsiders, or Tirfaie, have not been welcomed for centuries. That's where Seregil comes in. He is an exile of Aurenen, forced to leave as a young man for a crime of which he has never spoken. Idrilain has negotiated his return on very strict conditions, and Beka manages to convince a very reluctant Seregil to accompany them back to his homeland.
Alec, who is part Aurenfaie, is thrilled to be journeying to Aurenen, Seregil is decidedly less so. The land holds many memories for him, both happy and dark. As Alec learns more about their shared heritage, he learns much about his lover's hidden past as well. He needs to learn quickly however, because things are very different in Aurenen, and Klia will need all the help she can get on her diplomatic mission. The Aurenfaie live very long lives, so they see things quite differently. They take longer to make decisions. The problem is Skala doesn't have a lot of time. Things are getting worse on the battlefront daily, and a decision must be reached soon. Ancient intrigues threaten to sideline their work, and when a Skalan delegate is found dead, it's up to Seregil and Alec to work their master spy skills to save the mission-and Princess Klia-from certain doom.
Traitor's Moon is the third book in this series, and it differs from the first two in several significant ways. Seregil and Alec are finally a couple after their cautious and awkward courtship that spanned the first two books(...). Flewelling compensates for this well by exploring their untested relationship as they journey into Aurenen together, and by throwing in a new dose of romance with Beka and a suspicious Aurefaie guide. This book is also less action driven and therefore reads a little slower. It feels more like a political thriller than the swashbuckling adventures of the first two installments. Still, it was such a pleasure for me to return to old friends like Seregil and Alec that I loved every minute of it. Flewelling is a masterful writer and her world building skills and character development are on a par with the best in Fantasy. I was sorry to see the book end, and I'm already looking forward to the next book, to be released hopefully in 2005.
Rating:
Summary: When is the 4th book ???
Review: Well, this has been an enjoyable past week for me as I finished the 3 books of Nightrunner series. However I did regret buying
them at the end of Traitor's Moon because I have a dreadful feeling that the 4th book may never be written. And this will be a pity because the 3rd book is a solid bridge for more plot and character development. Lot's of loose ends - What exactly is Alec's heritage ? Thero's destiny ? Development of the raging war which threatens to engulf Seregil and Alec as they returned to Skala? Right, Miss Flewelling mentioned in her 3rd book that this is not a trilogy. But she left the series and started another trilogy which is focused on the ancient Skala Queen Tamar, aeon before the world of Nightrunner series. I am disappointed she did that because it meant if she ever returned to a 4th book of Nightrunner it will be published probably in 2005 or 2006. Christ ! I thought the Wheel of Time is the worst!
Traitor's Moon is not as fast moving as the first two but the characters development is more fascinating and engrossing. The characters mature before our eyes. We see Seregil coming to terms with himself which I find touching. Alec as devoted to Seregil as ever. The bond between Seregil and Alec shines and these 2 soul mates have become my favorite characters in fantasy series after Cal and Pell in the "Wraeththu" series. The side characters are also a rewarding read, Thero's potential to be a great and wise wizard, Beka's love for an Aurenfaie. Sigh ! I just wish Miss Flewelling has just adhered to the development of this series.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful!
Review: This is not your typical Sword and Sorcery novel; it's a beautifully crafted story continuing the adventures of two of Fantasy's most endearing characters. The blossoming relationship between Seregil and Alec is, in my opinion, the highlight of this story and told so poignantly that you just *know* these two were meant to be together. They're witty, charming, loving, courageous and outrageous - and I just love them! The story itself is filled with atmosphere, sight, sound and suspense and you'll find yourself furiously turning pages (and even anxiously sneaking peeks ahead of yourself). Traitor's Moon is one of my "if I were stranded on a deserted island" books; the other two I'd make sure I had on hand would be Luck in the Shadows and its wonderful sequel, Stalking Darkness. Ms. Flewelling is a true storyteller.. and I can't wait for Book 4! <G>
Rating: 
Summary: Two out of three ain't bad
Review: This book didn't cut it. Too contrived for my taste, and unlike the first 2 books, there was some real slow going. This series should have stopped at 2 books--there really wasn't more to tell, and Sergeril's homeland just isn't enough to fill a book. Still, check out the first 2 books and read some really good fantasy with a nice take on the orphan boy plot device.
Rating:
Summary: Traitor's Moon
Review: "Traitor's Moon" begins a couple of years after the end of "Stalking Darkness", when things are going badly for Skala in the war against Plenimar. Queen Idrilain decides that her country's only hope is to get aid from the Aurenfaie, so she sends her daughter on a diplomatic mission. She is accompanied by our heroes, Seregil and Alec, as well as Beka and her soldiers.
The biggest problem with this book is the first two hundred pages. After a single big action sequence, things slow down quite a bit. After the band of characters enters Aurenen, a lot of time is spent on infodumps about the society there. I found this disappointing since Flewelling had managed to keep the plot moving at a good pace throughout the first two books of the series. Fortunately, things kick back into gear after they reach the city of Sarikali, and we get intrigues, a new archvillain, a murder mystery, and more. Overall, "Traitor's Moon" should be satisfactory to anyone who's enjoyed this author's other works.
Rating:
Summary: A little bit of a let down from the first two...
Review: Picking up two years after the conclusion of Stalking Darkness, Traitor's Moon attempts to take its readers to places that they hadn't even fully imagined, with a trip to Aurenen, the isolationist nation to the south of the series' center, Skala. The backdrop of the new country is lovely, lush, well-crafted, but the story lags regretfully. The defining feature of the opening duology was that Flewelling launched into the story, and held to it fiercely. The books were about the plot.
However, Traitor's Moon is about Seregil dealing with his past, which was never fully explained. Alec and Seregil travel to Aurenen as part of a royal delegation to secure an alliance between the two lands. However, they, as always, find themselves a conspiracy, and try to fix everything.
Seregil is a lump in this book. He does nothing but mope; a jarring change from the ever-dynamic Seregil of the earlier books. Alec has to pick up the slack, but doesn't quite make it all the way, and the book doesn't have half the charm as it's predecessors. However, it isn't a bad book; it's just that compared to the power Flewelling displayed earlier, it's frighteningly weak.
If you loved the first two books, then I recommend this third whole-heartedly. If the first two never made it off your casual reading agenda, don't bother.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful third installment!
Review: The latest installment of the Nightrunner series, while it stands on its own, is still just as rich and colorful as the previous two novels.
We're finally taken to Seregils homeland of Aurenen. New characters, mysteries, and information is revealed to us in wonderful true storytelling fashion. Alec and Seregil's relationship is a pure delight and I hope, if Lynn does make good on her promise of another novel in this series, that they stay together for a very long time.
While the action in this novel is less than in the previous two, there's a lot of attention given to character development, which is a nice change of pace.
I sincerely hope that once Lynn's Tamir trilogy is complete, she takes us back to this wonderful world and these wonderful characters once more!
Rating:
Summary: An aquired taste, but excellent despite it's flaws.
Review: Traitor's Moon, the third (and currently the last) book in the Nightrunner series, continues the story of Alec and Seregil (who are now full-fledged homosexual lovers). I read this book with certain expectations set by Lynn's previous two books, and while Traitor's Moon is indeed an intriguing addition to the series, it stumbles in places and I feel it really could have been done better. However, even with all it's flaws it's still on par with Lynn's previous work, it lives up to all the standards of the Nightrunner series; it just doesn't surpass them.
To begin, Lynn's writing seems to have changed a bit since Stalking Darkness. Her writing style has certainly gotten more fluent, but also more vague. It's as if she decided that since she has two books under her belt, she could relax. With characters moving to entirely different areas in the span of a sentence without much due description, it's hard to imagine the characters' surroundings, leaving your mind to fill in the blanks. Exposition abounds. Lynn's notorious habit of having characters stop in the middle of nowhere to give long-winded history lessons is replaced by the narrator stopping in the middle of nowhere to give small history lessons. This doesn't at all interfere with the pace of the book, but it can get distracting.
In Traitor's Moon, Lynn takes us to Aurenen, the sacred homeland of the Aurenfaie race, the land from which Seregil was exiled in his youth. Lynn is introducing an entirely new culture here, and I must commend her for the good job she did with it, even if she did go overboard at times. At the beginning you're given lessons disguised as scenes about Aurenfaie culture which are mercifully brief and entertaining, but once the boys reach Aurenen you're thrown into the deep end of the pool, drowning in a sea of Aurenfaie terminology, hard to pronounce words, and overly long names. "Bilairy's Balls, Captain, I haven't understood a word since we got here," one of the characters complains, echoing my own thoughts as I read that sentence.
The pace of Traitor's Moon is slow, sometimes painfully so. The beginning drags on and on as if it is building for some spectacular plot twist, which it is, but the going is slow. Don't expect this to be much like Luck in the Shadows or Stalking Darkness, burglary is practically absent from this book and the political intrigue comes much later. The pace doesn't really pick up until roughly 200 pages into the book. "Something interesting finally happened," the narrator comments at around page 200, again eerily echoing my own thoughts as I read that particular sentence.
However, once you get the hang of Aurenfaie culture and get past the opening fluff, it's full speed ahead, launching into another masterful tale of political intrigue. Gone is the pitifully cliched "prophecy" of Stalking Darkness (ok, just ignore the Rhui'Auros babble). The juxtaposition of fantasy and "whodunit" mystery is is a refreshing change from the typical fantasy fare, and as usual, Lynn's mastery of bringing her characters to life shines through. The characters are just as real, funny,interesting, and "human" as in her past books. Seregil and Alec are definitely the stars, but it seems they may be upstaged by Beka and Nyal if they don't watch out.
Overall, this is an excellent book, if a bit slow and hard to get into initially. I recommend you read the first two books before this one, though, as they are the faster and more gripping parts of the series. The book looses a star because of the flaws I listed above, still you'd have to be a fool to dismiss this book.
