Frequent visitors to this website will know that I am not generally a fan of political fantasy.  Court intrigue comes a poor second to a spot of monster-bashing and a quest or two, and I don’t have a lot of use for fantasy that isn’t exciting (that’s what it is for, isn’t it?)  But after a slow beginning, I had to hand it to this author for coming up with plenty of surprises and in managing to neatly sidestep some tired old clichés I could see coming.  Anybody who has not read the Hythrun Chronicles had better leave off reading this review and go hunt down a copy of Medalon (also reviewed on this site) and read it first.  You will then find yourself eagerly revisiting old friends and discovering things you wanted to know about, such as the mysterious Harshini, which appear a lot in this novel.  All in all, a good beginning to another absorbing series where the characters are interesting enough to make up for a lack of non-stop action.