I liked it, but not as much as other books I've read by Cunningham. The three characters that have been stars of 5(I think) of her books, have come back together one more time; the jaded half-elf, Arilyn, the psudo fop/mage, Danilo, and the evilish crime lord of Waterdeep, Elaith. In this story, they spend their time almost entirely within the city of Waterdeep. This was cool, and I like the way that Cunningham continues to flesh out the "Manhattan" of Forgotten Realms. The reason I only gave this book 3 stars is because, in my mind, it was lacking in the fantasy arena. And as far as the Forgotten Realms world goes, Cunningham is not the first author to do this. I just need there to be MORE magic and MORE monsters. And there was some...there were some scary lizardmen and an important magic item, but I never felt like these were taking the foreground. It seemed like I was reading about fake politics and emontional issues. I believe that a fantasy novel should have some of this as well to make the world and characters real, but I read fantasy for other reasons.Anyways, it was a good story and Cunningham is still one of my favorite authors of the Realms. But for 4 or 5 stars, I need dragons and shit...
