This is the second in Hearne’s Seven Kennings series. As with most of his works, the characters are wonderful, and the world-building, excellent. Most is told by the bard Fintan, with pockets of present-time action. Fintan possesses a unique magic, one of six Kennings. These Kennings are rare, powerful, and come at a price for those accepted to bear them. His allows him to enhance storytelling by taking on the personas of those he’s met in his travels, who’ve played parts in the actual events.

Blight dove more into exploring the quite disparate cultures of this world. The anthropologist in me always loves learning about different cultures, be they real world or story world cultures. The only downside for me was lack of any kind of recap of the events in the previous book. It jumped right back into things, which might be fine if I were reading it on the heels of Plague instead of a long time apart! This is epic fantasy at its best, infused with Hearne’s particular brand of humour. Recommended for fans of Patrick Rothfuss, JRR Tolkien, and GRR Martin. I’m definitely looking forward to the rest of the series.