I read this book with my Shelfari group. Coming off the high of Whom the Gods Would Destroy, I was excited to tackle another Hodge book.

This story is difficult to describe, so I'm going to leave that to the book's description and stick with my feelings on the story here.

I enjoyed the creativity and imagination of the concept. I also enjoyed how the tale turned into something completely different than what I expected. Hodge's prose is always excellent, but I think it's more polished now than it was in 1991, when this book first came out. The characters were memorable, realistic, and complicated. Lastly, I loved the character of Kerebawa and couldn't help but make comparisons between his people and Native Americans.

I did have a little trouble with the pacing and there were a few points where it was lagging a bit. Fortunately, these sections didn't go on for too long before another exciting twist would pick things up again.

To sum up, this original fascinating story started off with a slow burn, then it took off in a completely unforeseen direction, before it rocketed to a close. I liked it a lot. Recommended! ( )