I'm a big fan of Robin Hobb & I tend to measure other fantasy authors against her.KC May is a skillful writer & she produces well constructed prose.The story here was good & the characters are well developed & easy to follow.Hobb causes you to despise the bad guys more as she creates more conflict between the characters but that doesn't take anything away from May's ability to tell a good story.I don't remember finding any spelling or grammatical errors which speaks volumes for the editor/publisher as well.I'll read the 2nd installment of this story & feel that these books are extremely well priced.