I enjoy fantasy, but confess to being less keen about the dark, gritty variety that seem to be the norm these days, nor do I favor too much court intrigue if it means it is at the expense of any action or memorable characters. As a genre, it does tend to get mired in clichés, so how refreshing it is when somebody comes along and does something different - like this! You will find plenty of fantasy clichés in here too, but all cleverly tweaked to make them into something else which results in a feeling of originality. The characters aren’t all saintly heroes or irredeemable villains either; there are plenty of the gray characters who make a book interesting as well as a well-realized background and a suspenseful story. When I come to choose my top ten for this site in November I will probably be listing this under fantasy, unless I am very lucky and 2008 turns out to be a year with two stunningly readable and original fantasy novels in it. Highly unlikely, so you had better get hold of this one now. Gollancz does it again!