I went into this book with quite a bit of anticipation. I've been into the whole 'assassin' fantasy kick lately (thank you Brent Weeks) and Williams sounded like he would fit the bill well.

Unfortunately Williams chose to use that 'multi POV' so popular in fantasy and not to very good use in my opinion. Maybe because one of the characters in the book, the Pattern Master, tended to speak through others without announcement or maybe because practically everyone could 'hear' voices in their heads at various times, the constant POV shifting left me dizzy and confused more often than enlightened.

While many of the characters drew my attention (Mesema the most, though I did like Sarmin and even Beyon at times) it was hard to follow their progress. Williams wove their stories in and out of each other constantly, not really focusing on any one of them for more than several pages before moving on. It was hard to feel the anxiety and nervousness Mesema felt while traveling away from her clans when you spend only half a dozen pages with her and half of those pages are her acting like a brat.

Williams also lacked a lot of tension in the book. Considering there's a plague decimating the city, multiple conspiracies against the throne, a possibly raving mad heir to the same throne, and a semi-retired assassin questioning everything he's ever done because his knife is speaking to him...I kind of just shrugged. One conspiracy against the throne, that which is really what set everything into motion, is so anti-climatic I wanted to throw the book over in frustration. I didn't quite understand the why of it, though I appreciated the long term goals well enough, but then it just...falls apart so abruptly I wasn't sure it made sense to include it to begin with.

The book isn't short, its a little over 350 pages, but Williams seemed to want to end certain storylines within the book so that they wouldn't be a problem for the next book. So the conspiracy against the throne occurs and is then shoved off for the Patter Master problems which is in turn dealt with quickly because it was close to the end of the novel.
( )

I was surprised by how good this book was! It's a little like "A Game of Thrones" with it's intricate court schemes, but with a lot more magic. I particularly like the pattern magic, but I hope the elemental side will be developed in the next book.

The characters were solid and well developed. There were a few plot points that didn't seem quite right, but considering this is Williams' debut novel it's not so surprising and I expect his/her writing will mature.

Although this is the first in the trilogy, the story is self-contained, so even if the book isn't quite your cup of tea you won't be left hanging! Hopefully there will be a greater story arc spanning the entire trilogy, which I believe is not beyond Williams' capabilities. ( )

Never made it past chapter one. Really didnt grab me. ( )

I enjoyed this a great deal. Political intrigue in an Arabian Knights-esque setting complete with a Vizier plotting for the throne, dark magic and scheming in the harem. Sounds cliched but was actually tightly plotted. and the characters well drawn. ( )

Well I just don't know. I liked some things about this - the sparseness of the storytelling gave a strong sense of style, and the characters were old archetypes (the regretful assassin, the uncertain royal bride, the evil vizier) but interesting within their familiar outlines. But then it was just sort of a big pile of Things Happening, often in brutally short scenes (half a page, and this is a generously whitespaced book) and with characters doing things either for no discernible reason or Because They Had A Feeling.

Now, don't get me wrong. I love a good no-discernible-reason when the narrative weaves together dense story from which you can pick out the overarching web of the character's true motivation, the pattern that probably they can't even see themselves. That sort of thing is beautiful. But this is a short, stark, sparse story and no such web is visible.

And Because They Had A Feeling is a favourite in fantasy, where our characters are often guided by Prophecy or Magic or Gods or something else with Capital Letters. But to be honest, I feel like that sort of thing is so hackneyed you can't actually do it with a straight face and expect me to not be sitting there at the end going, "You're kidding, right? The voices in his head DIDN'T lead him awry? Wait. What?"

The last two words being what I actually said out loud when I turned the final page and there was no more. Abruptly.

So I just don't know. It's interesting, but also baffling. I feel like it does way too much in its short entirety to do any of it proper justice. And I don't even see what the second book would be about, from here, so I can't even begin to say whether I'm interested in picking it up. I will approach with wary distrust, though. ( )