Okay folks, listen up. For all the readers who had complaints about the last two books in The Raven's Shadow Trilogy—this book has none of those problems. Put that out of your mind and dive into this. I loved it. Vaelin is older, more grizzled, and he's lost his song. He can still wield a blade though, and boy does he. I love this Vaelin, and the group he travels with on a crazy rescue mission that leads to a pending war even more frightening than those from Raven's Shadow are fantastic. This is fun, fast-moving epic fantasy at its best!