The impossible has finally happened; young Tavi is now His Highness Princeps Octavian and the Alearans have formed a pact with their erstwhile enemies the Canim. But this seems trivial against the fact that the dreaded Vord are everybody’s enemies, and a far larger and fiercer threat than any they have previously faced. They have already destroyed the Canim homeland where Tavi and his companions are now heading, and somebody needs to formulate a plan fast,,,,

Five books in and only one left to go of this breathless, excellent traditional fantasy series. I thought that they didn’t write them like this anymore, but Mr Butcher is proving me wrong. He is as adept at writing battle scenes as he is at creating scheming spies and plotting courtiers, so every fantasy reader is assured of finding something to enjoy. As usual the story tends to remain with one set of characters for a chapter or more (usually more) before leaving us with a cliffhanger and jumping off to set up another thrilling situation elsewhere. This ensures that the action never lets up, there are always surprises to prevent it all getting stale and a variety of different settings and plots. One of the strongest fantasy series for some time—I hope he starts a new trend for this sort of thing.