Not bad, if you can get by the fact that nothing important happens in the first 388 pages. On page 389 I said out loud "Finally we are doing something."

I think I might have been spoiled by the fact that I read the Lord Valentine series first which in my opinion is the much better trilogy (so far), but when Silverberg gets going, he (kinda) gets a good story rolling.

The whole book struck me as kinda 'meh', it's predictable, Prestimion is way too nice, Korsibar is way too stupid, and most of the secondary characters are forgettable. It also doesn't help that Silverberg crowds his pages with weird people, with weird names, from places with weird names, and then never mentions them EVER AGAIN. If a person isn't important, I don't think we need their geneology back seven generations. Case in point, early on in the book he spends 16 PAGES, mentioning different cities and rituals, these don't have anything to do with the story, and 1, only 1 of the cities is mentioned at another part of the book.

Despite these gripes, there is a certain warmth that comes from returning to an old, favourite author. I did enjoy the book, (after the first 388 pages), and was happy to read it to it's conclusion. I don't know if I have it in me to read the other 2 books in the series. I'll need a couple books to wash the taste out of my mouth first.