Intrigue, magic, angry squirrel cats, butter biscuits and duels. Once again Kellen manages to get himself into a mess and his only weapon is his quick wit. Kellen is probably the luckiest person alive as he manages to once again narrowly escape death and find himself in the middle of a political minefield where no one is what they seem.
A little about the book:
The fifth book in the page-turning SPELLSLINGER fantasy series.
Kellen and Reichis have just finished fighting a duel in the desert when Kellen inadvertently smears blood on the Daroman flag – an act of treason for which the Marshals have no choice but to arrest him. Just before he’s put before the Queen to be executed, Kellen is given a strange piece of advice from one of his fellow prisoners: kill the Queen and he’ll be given clemency by those who take power. But when Kellen comes face-to-face with the eleven year-old monarch, he realises she’s vastly smarter than he expected – and in a great deal more danger.
The story starts out with Kellen being sentenced to death and being saved by the Queen of Darome. This sets the rest of the story in motion. Kellen quickly deals with the queens problem but he son realises that the problem goes a lot deeper than he realised.
The story is full of twists and turns. While I figured a few of the twists out some I really didn’t see coming. Just as Kellen finds it hard to know who to trust, so did I. Some characters where just too nice to trust from the get go but others really kept you guessing what their true motives were.
As usual Shalla turns up. Kellens relationship with her is strained as usual. It is clear that they care about each other but have found themselves on oppesing sides trying to get the other to come round to their own point of view.
While the previous book felt like no character growth was made by Kellen, in this book it feels like he has finally found somewhere he belongs , even if it is only temporary.
This is the penultimate book in the series, so Kellen has one more book to figure out who he is and what he’s doing with his life.
W.R.L Morris-Author 