The broken crown

This first volume of West's second duo (her first being The Sacred Hunt) offers all the challenges but few of the rewards of a standard good-versus-evil epic. More buildup than action, more scene setting and character description than aptly placed exposition, West's narrative puts the burden on the reader to distinguish between important and irrelevant details while trying not to trip over awkward prose ("she wished to see the lines of his face as he somehow skirted the edge of the who that she was"). West does a good job of creating sympathetic characters, but unfortunately nothing much happens to them. Momentum builds in fits and starts right up to the end, making the book merely a long-winded introduction to the next volume, The Shining Court, due soon. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved