I hadn't read any of Friedman's books previously, so this started off as a pleasant surprise. The opening is fast, gripping, and delicious: atmospheric and encapsulating many interesting directions that it could go.Behind the prelude, though, is a more standard modern epic fantasy. The mix of SF and fantasy is nice and nicely handled, reminiscent of Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover series. Friedman writes well and the text has a nicely lush quality to it.That's a lot of "nice" where perhaps some more risks should be taken. If there is a problem with this book, it is the pedestrian plot and the characterization. While the characters are not as irksomely cardboard as some big sword-and-sorcery books, they are not very deep, mostly puppets to jerk to the tune of the author. There are some holes in the plot that are a bit annoying.Still, overall I liked this effort, but it took some work to read it cover to cover.