Ahoy there me mateys!

I have to say that while this was an interesting read, it was definitely unusual. To give you an idea – the main characters are a mute, a baby, and a goat. Aye mateys. Ye read that right. And if that weren’t enough, there also be a magical sword with an eyeball. Cool, huh?

The story involves a world where there has been a breach and the demons are getting in and trying to take over. Wherever the demons go, corruption ensues. I loved the weird half-breeds and other unsavories that demon taint makes. In fact most of the demon related details were awesome.

The chapters alternate between the present where we follow the mute, i.e. the Vagrant, on his quest to take the magic sword to the Shining City and then chapters that go back eight years in the past to how the present came to be. And of course converge nicely.

I actually loved both the Vagrant and the goat. I mean, the goat was actually one of the highlights of the novel. Baby was different but not to me taste overall. I liked the idea of the baby more as a prop then as a character.

Having a character that was mute was actually fascinating. I thought the author did an excellent job making the Vagrant communicate. Of course, the Vagrant does run into lots of talking folk along the way and picks up some for a time along his travels. Also this is not the type of book where ye get to see into the main characters thoughts. So everything ye learn is basically through dialogue and action. Works astonishingly well.

So why didn’t I love it? Well, I think overall it was the very last leg of the journey into the Shining City that seemed lackluster as well as the City itself. It fit the story and the characters. It just didn’t thrill me. I think that overall I would have preferred this to be a standalone and not a trilogy. While I will not be reading any more of the series, this was a good read and I am glad I read it. Especially because of the goat.

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