I really enjoyed the first third of this book – the author has a unique writing style. I often found that the writer approaches the subject indirectly, and spent a lot of time on details and fleshing out this huge world that we has dreamt up.
It starts in a dark and grim place, that is somehow a wholesome home to our hero, and abandoned orphan raised in the spooky Citadel to be one of the government torturers. Torturing is just another job here (the prisoners are called ‘clients’) but as it is the only world the character has known there is nothing especially strange about it.
The descriptions of the daily life of the torturers and the mysterious events happening among the other guilds of the Citadel had me caught up in the story. There are a lot of mysterious things going on – much more than what you’d find happening at Hogwarts – and I was looking forward to seeing it in more detail.
But after a certain event occurs, our hero is out on the road to a far away place – and he walks right into Monty Python-esque situation after situation. This sudden turn towards what I suppose is comedy caught me off-guard and it was hard to believe it was the same writer.
There are dreams and prophecies, and ridiculous setups with assassins and carriage races, and plenty of chances for our horny hero to goggle and grope the female characters, who seem to exist just as sexual objects.
I managed to get through the rest of the book, and finished it with a sense of accomplishment and disappointment. Too bad – it was a promising start.
Next I am reading The Exvangelicals by Sarah McCammon.
