A beautifully written, light, quest-type, portal fantasy novel with unusual characters and original world building. ( )

A bit ambitious beyond its reach, this tale falters mainly in two areas. First, the plot is so threadbare as to be nonexistent; I'm used to writers not spelling things out, instead leaving it for the reader to pick up piecemeal, but by 200 pages in one still doesn't quite know what the problem is, or worse, what the two main characters are doing about it other than stumbling around. Secondly, Douglas' prose leaves a lot to be desired. Consider the foll0wing sentence: "He glanced at Irissa's withdrawn profile, her closed lashes lying like a massed army of dark barbs across the peaceful valley of her eye sockets."

Yeah, she wrote that. And there's more besides, at least half of which sounds like it could win a Bulwer-Lytton contest. In fact, the entire last three or four chapters of the book are so laden with bad prose and utterably dull situations (which are meant to be 'riveting') that the best descriptor of the book I can imagine is "tedious."

Avoid this book at all costs. ( )