Or rather, the general All American public, if any of the wordy but usually pointless “because I say so”-reviews on the aforementioned site, are anything to go by – is shockingly uneducated, stiff and take themselves far too seriously. Avoid reviews. Tip of the day.

Yet, I found this little gem (after having purchased the usual therapeutic Conan-title…) – and about 100 pages into the book it sure makes for an interesting read. Having said that, I can’t really see the “wonderful characterization”-praise that reader reviews on Amazon seem to be overflowing with. The story revolves around two men, a rogue and a not much more than a boy straight out of the woods – that find each other in a rather tight spot and go adventuring together. More or less, that is. As plots go its pretty straightforward.

The story is however evocative of Robert Lynn Asprin’s Thieves World-series and I think there might be some entertaining twists to it. Certainly enough to warrant the purchase of book number two in the series (Stalking Darkness).

Oh, and one more thing. Having googled the book it seems that some of the plot at least seems to center around the fact that the two men get somewhat enamoured with one another. And yet more gossip does its best to spread the novelty in this – which of course is a mistake. Anyone who has read The Tawny Man will have singled out the Fool as gay and Fitz as the unreachable object of his desire. Nothing new there, but I am rather looking forward to reading how the author, Flewelling (pseduonym?) will handle that in the volumes to come, because it sure is a thin line to tread. To my knowledge, no one save George R R Martin in the A song of Fire and Ice-series has made a credible scenario around erotica as a regular occurance in fantasy literature.

While not shying away from the grittyness of it, he really doesn’t make it debase his novels into Harlequinesque pulp, nor revels in it too much to make it overly romantic. We want it meaty, but sophisticated.

I do so wonder where Flewelling will go with this.