I read the Orthe books and couldn't wait to get into another 1110 pages of Mary Gentle's work.I am sure she put an enormous amount of work into it but it seems chiefly to have gone into including as many obscure weaponry words as possible.As another reviewer said, it's juvenile, gratuitous and ill-made - if this book did not have Mary Gentle's name on it, I would not have been able to pick it as from the same author.Ash seems to swear and flail around in armour a lot, but she is not believable at all and certainly not a strong female character like Christie was in the Orthe books.The imagination and imagery is also sadly missing.To be honest, I haven't finished the book and I don't think I will.