A curious book, pitched somewhere between a Dumas adventure novel and The Dispossessed; our hero swings his sword, downs some wine and then conducts subtle philosophical discussions about feudalism, the worth of literature, and the nature of historical progress.

I found the prose rather odd at times, which it seems is the result of a shoddy translation, and the tone was weird. Some scenes play out like an awkward farce (drunk nobles flounder in the mud, characters get whisked behind a curtain one by one in a flurry of betrayals and double-crossings); others have a more serious tone. Things improve towards the end as the philosophical themes of the novel are brought out into the open and carefully examined.

High three stars/low four stars.