Rating: 
Summary: Worst. Ever. But not without parts worth reading.
Review: This is the worst Valdemar book I have ever read (though some of Lackey's earlier, pre-Valdemar works and This Sceptr'd Isle were worse than this one). Others have pointed out the massive continuity errors, so I'll pass them by. If you've never read a Lackey book and this is one you pick up, you might not hate it, because you don't know how it ends. Maybe there's some suspense for you.The history outlined in other books means that nothing terribly interesting could plausibly happen during Selenay's reign, which is probably why we are regaled with endless descriptions of the ice festival (originally snow festival, a minor error), hurlee (hockey plus lacrosse plus polo equals SHUT UP, I DON'T CARE), glass-blowing, etc. None of those descriptions would be out of line if they moved the story forward or enhanced it in some way, but each segment seems dropped in at random. Hurlee could have been excused if it were truly relevant to one of the characters' experiences -- I'm pretty sure the author was inspired by quidditch, but alas, the age of the average audience and the fact that none of the characters we care about care about the game made Hurlee an unwelcome guest in the book. The commentary on sportsmen-as-warriors came out of some beginning textbook on the sociology of sport and were chucked in wherever there was space, as opposed to when needed. I like learning about everyday life, but not because there's no story to tell. Lackey's usually decent process of building tension and suspense always required the willing cooperation of the reader, but here those attempts are dashed by inexpert, lazy cutting between Alberich's and Selenay's accounts. The fact that long-time readers know exactly who the bad guys are doesn't help. Story-wise this book is a drastic failure. "Mary Sue" aside (and it is frustrating to see a vanity persona this way), the Valdemar world could certainly use a Myste-type character. I would have loved to have more descriptive scenes of Alberich, both at work and personally (having him keep and maintain twenty spy personas is patently ridiculous, of course, and it's not a very good secret since apparently the entire City Guard knows about them all -- but the Weaponsmaster work is interesting, one-man CIA aside). If I objected to romance and developing relationships, reading Lackey would be pretty dumb of me. But since we don't know anything about Myste except that she's a normal person, more or less (we never hear thing one about her companion), and we don't know how their relationship progresses except that it does, I thought the Myste of this book was a really unsatisfying character with an especially obnoxious name. And I am eagerly anticipating the horrifying disaster or quiet fact of life that makes Myste completely absent from her supposed role as Herald-Chronicler by the time Elspeth is fourteen (or however old she was in the arrows trilogy). Exile's Honor was really enjoyable, but this book just made me wish for more real character development of Alberich, more about Selenay, and a LOT more about Selenay's relationship with Talia and what happened with Talia between the Ancar stuff and the middle-aged den mother of the Storms trilogy (with all that Orthallen stuffed in, it's hard not to read Valor and think back, or chronologically forward). There's something to be said for quitting while you're ahead, though, so I'm not going to beg too hard for more about that. Two more notes: Continuity has been plummeting lately in Lackey's books -- the robes of the karsite priests, for example, are a mess, and so is this book. What really, really irks me, though, is the horrifying number of basic, easy, eminently fixable typos in all her recent works (leaving aside pathetic style gaffes someone should have called out). The fault there is squarely on editors and publishers. There is no excuse to fail so badly in proofreading a book -- and in this case, this is its second edition. Ugh.
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