I wasn't sure about this book to start with. My least favourite part of the Painted Man was the Krasians, and to have what seemed an interminable history lesson about them right off here didn't go down too well.

Nonetheless, the story did pick up, the characters I preferred appeared and fought demons and even people we hadn't seen for a while, from very early in the first book, reappear having aged and matured. You really do get the impression a huge war is coming and it does promise to be a rather brilliant read when it does.