As fantasies go this is a short one. In that it has more in common with the sword and sorcery fantasies of years past than with most of today's multi-volume, mammoth epics. This in my opinion is not such a bad thing.

In this tale our lead character Daasek, is a former fisherman from the port of Myniah, who following a successful initiation into Myniah's fisherman's guild is ensorcelled by a magician intent on using him to eliminate the other members of the thirteen magicians in the world, so he would have total command of this realm.

Due to it's length this story does not hang around to describe the sunset or the intricacies of sailing medieval style sailing ships, and that can be a good thing. After having read many fantasy books over the last twenty years I am fairly familiar with a lot of background information and I will happily allow assumptions to be made with logistical background detail. This does allow the story to flow at an incredible pace, this is a story that can easily be read in one sitting.

If you like your fantasy homogenised, formulaic and about three inches thick per volume then this will not suit you. It's lack of elaborately detailed description will probably seem unsatisfying. However if you do not want to know how may leg hairs the villain has then you might find something here. Certainly if you read and enjoyed any Robert E. Howard tales as a youngster then the length of this will not cause you any problems. Also this might not have quite the polish of the mainstream publishers fantasy offerings but it does have an interesting tale, and it's setting is certainly one in which further tales could be told.

It certainly makes me willing to try more by the author.