Rating: 5 out of 5
Somewhere through this title I was thinking if we really need this much trouble just over Tynisa, but I enjoyed the original chapters leading into the Commonweal here and overall the cultural experience—as much as the story itself—makes this a pleasant alteration from the rest of the series. Compared to Stenwold’s journey into the northern state a few books ago, we go deep into their philosophy here and we get to experience so much of what makes the Dragonflies them. And, in this, of course, we get the reminder as well that everyone is still human.
That said, I think (again?) that Che’s journey is more revealing here than Tynisa’s. Tynisa’s own ghosts have been haunting her for several books now, and this makes it rather tedious, if more damaging that we come back into the same topic here. This is, however, the centrepoint of this book so I don’t want to reveal too much. Suffice to say that it could have ended in several different ways.
The side-characters were a boost though. Not only the members of the Salme family and their servants (especially the seneschal), but also the brigands. Dal Arche made a good impression throughout, with his reluctance to do stupid things (if only it was ever that easy), though one can’t say that his fate was what he would have liked it to be. Isendter was a similarly enjoyable secondary character, extraordinarily able and it was good to see those abilities in use.
I liked it, perhaps more for the setting and the side-characters than for the main chaps we should be following, but I liked it even so.
