![]() ![]() While I can appreciate that kind of challenge and did find the world-building somewhat interesting, the storytelling just didn't engage me. ![]() Bakker doesn't do much in the way of easing the reader into his world, but throws us into the middle of the political games, leaving us to figure out who's who and what's what. A wandering monk with exceptional powers of psychological manipulation gets involved, and recruits a northern barbarian from a Mongol-like people. A decadent emperor and his ambitious young nephew have their own agendas. "Schools" of magicians aligned with one group or another play their own shadowy games. A religious leader has appeared to organize one group of kingdoms into a Holy War against another country. This is elaborately plotted fantasy in which many factions and individual players are scheming for control of a world with a lot of history. I got about 2/3 of the way through this one and just couldn't sustain interest. ![]() Heavy world-building, but didn't engage me ![]()
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