author : Lisa Shearin

Raine Benares is an elf with a rather shady family: they tend to be smugglers, she is a slightly magical "seeker". One night while trying to prevent a thief friend from getting into trouble burgling a necromancer, she finds herself in possession of a magical talisman. Or it might be more correct to say that it is possessing her. It wants her to use its destructive power, to steal her soul. She can't take it off [although I must admit I have no idea why she put it on in the first place], and it is attracting the attention of some seriously powerful, and seriously nasty, goblins. Trouble indeed.

This has all the right ingredients: sassy heroine barging her way through trouble, complex world with (relatively) well worked out magical rules, fast paced danger and fighting and working out puzzles. So I can't tell why it doesn't really work for me. Although it's a first person narration, I never really get a feel for Raine. There are places where she makes ironic self deprecating remarks: I hate it when someone else is right and I'm wrong. I'm irrational that way. I'm working on it. But these remarks don't seem to fit with the actual character, who feels bland.

So, a fun fast-paced piece of mind candy, but not the kind of "guilty pleasure" mind candy that would make me rush off to pick up the sequel.