I always enjoy political maneuvering in my fantasy, I love seeing all the plots the characters can foil and then be completely blind-sided by the one they missed. I'm sadistic that way, I guess.

This is our third jaunt with Alec and Seregil. Traitor's Moon picks up about two years after the previous book, where they have finally ~confessed~ to one another. Despite the fact that they've been traveling together, living together and banging the hell out of each other (I assume, since their sex scenes are scanty and only PG before fading to black), they are constantly described in the prose as "friends". This descriptor does not do their relationship justice, though this is not to demean in anyway the strength of platonic friendship. It's just odd that the author uses the term "talimenos" or "lovers" in dialogue and "friends" in descriptive language. It really threw me off every time it happened (and it was sprinkled liberally throughout the novel).

That being said, I will echo another reviewer here: Alec is a saint to put up with Seregil sometimes.

Thero's characterization is my favorite in this novel. I especially liked how we were able to see a little from his point of view. The fact that he referred to Beka, Seregil and Alec as his friends (in his own head) is a HUGE step forward from his first appearance. Although it took

Nysander's death to do so,

Thero has become a better and more compassionate person. I love this sort of slow character growth, it speaks well of the overall pacing.

Dieter is my favorite. The dialogue is so ... normal. People really do scoff and speak like this, though the accident of them all speaking common languages is a little hard to believe.

This really picked up toward the end, when Isolfr decided to actually do something of his own accord. It got a little hairy in the middle with all the violent mass matings and the metaphorical pissing contests. I didn't read reviews for this one so I was a bit unprepared for all that.

There was a strange "women are people too!" tangent that showed up during Isolfr's second meeting with Tin. I am a little dismayed by the way it was introduced (near the end) and then pretty much dropped immediately after his thoughts were completed.

I liked the way the authors took great pains to emphasize that the wolves, while bonded to the minds of their particular brothers, do not think like people. They could feel their emotions and understand the core of them (anger, sadness, pain), but not really grasp the reasons why said brothers were feeling them. I felt that it was a fairly realistic portrayal of magical wolf-bonding, if such a thing is possible.

This has to be one of the most interesting worlds I've read recently. I only wish I had more to read about how it came to be and how the Inquisition works and everything else!