John Flanagan’s magical stories are not for the bookshelves; rather these books remain in the minds forever. John writes in such a way that he brings the childhood memories alive within no time and that’s why the books are real sensation for the children and adults alike. We have seen author’s brilliance in The Icebound Land and The Ruins of Gorlan before and now comes this next part of the famous series.
Will and Halt started their journey long ago and now this apprentice and master are in a strong bond because they have gone through several tough situations in life together. Will is also not an ordinary student himself, as he is now fully capable of tackling his own problems all by himself without taking any help from his master. The problem that Will confronts this time is of Lord Syron who is down with a terrible disease which seemingly has no cure. Will lands in the situation and finds out that there is more to his mission than just finding the cure for Lord Syron. There is deceit everywhere and mysterious disease is not the only enemy that he faces.
The only close ally the he gets is Alyss who too disappears in the middle and Will finds himself undecided over the situation that whether his mission is more important than his friend or not. The novel looks more of a game where there are traps in all directions, Stuart Blinder’s narration is slow in this case but luckily it is not low. The high drama gets a high volume by Stuart and action is felt to the heart and mind in each step.
