I’ve read quite a number of reviews of the first book in this series, and was surprised how many people seem to think that this tale of a quest to kill a demon is bog standard fantasy.  On the surface it certainly sounds highly unoriginal, but only in the plot itself, not in any of the finer details and certainly not the characters.  This is no idealized tale of heroes a la Tolkein, but rather the account of how such an undertaking really would be, complete with all the types of adventurer you would get joining in.  There is the warlord’s spoiled son, his downtrodden servant, outcast mercenary, thieves, vagrants and worse.  It all gets extremely bloodthirsty and if you don’t like that type of thing you won’t care for this at all, as there is gore in spades.  But what makes it even more original is the playful way it is written, with humor popping up in the most unlikely places and raising a much-needed chuckle.  The only alloys in this are the almost total lack of female characters, and the ones that are there seem to show that although the author is good at portraying men, the opposite sex appears an unknown species.  He is excellent at descriptions, conjuring up the places in the story to an alarmingly tactile life, but the whole could stand some editing.  Quite a lot of editing.  That being said, the novel stayed in my mind long afterwards in the way that most books frankly do not, and that is praise indeed.  The next time I see David Bilsborough’s name in a bookstore I will be at the front of the queue.