Between this book and the next one in the Serpentwar saga, Feist seems to kill of most of the characters we have got to know in the previous books. I realise some of them must have been getting on a bit but.....

Yeah, I noticed that. It did get a bit bloody with the "regular cast", didn't it?

I really think James and Gamina deserved a better fate. Arutha got a nice, quiet passing from natural causes between books, but Jimmy and Pug's daughter are blown to bits while Lysle, just a few feet away, survives with injuries. Kind of depressing. And don't get me started on Nicholas's abrupt death...