Ahoy there me mateys!  I really enjoyed the start to a new series.  Aelis is a graduate of the Magisters’ Lyceum and a female necromancer, among other talents.  Assigned to a backwater town hundreds of miles from anywhere, she misses city life and the pleasures her wealth afforded her.  Lone Pine only seems to have cold weather, goats, and peasants that need her talents but are scared of her.  Aelis expects the posting to be boring and is planning to serve her time and get back to the real world.  Instead she finds unexpected trouble.

A lot of the enjoyment of the book will come down to if the reader likes Aelis. I happened to love her.  She is snarky and grumpy and extremely self-indulgent at times.  She is also principled and stubborn and fun to root for.  There are not many fleshed out characters in this.  The tracker, Tun, is one of the few nuanced people in the book.  I loved him too.  

The pacing of the book is a bit slow and takes about half the book to get to the conflict.  The world building is light and practically non-existent.  I did like the slice-of-life insight into Aelis' life and thoughts.  The magic system is very interesting and is slowly revealed in the form of Aelis' reminiscing about her studies.  There is not a lot of explanation for the magic overall though.

The novel has an old school feel to it and I really disliked having to put the book down.  I am look forward to the next book after the abrupt cliff hanger ending.  I need to know what happens to Aelis next.  Arrrr!