In the 5th novel of the series, Garric and his friends reach the city of Carcosa, where there is tension between the three priesthoods. When Tenoctris, accompanied by Cashel, tries to find out whether one temple is a trap, evil magic is set upon them, leaving Cashel with a choice - die in its grasp or serve a powerful young wizard who pulls him to her world before the end. Embroiled in her fight, he finds himself trying to save a whole soceity instead. Worried about her fiance, Sharina is caught in another trap and flung into another world, one that seems uncannily like the one she has left, except this one is covered in show and ice, and strange predators hunt amongst the ruins. A few humans survive and she joins them, using a magical axe to help them fight and survive. She realises that to get home, she has to fight the cause of all the suffering, the Goddess of Ice, who came to the world and sucked all the heat from it to feed her power. Ilna and Chalcus have their own task, to find out why ships are being attacked in the north and whether the reports of winged demons are true. But even they find magic behind the deaths. Garric, Tenoctris and Liane are left to pick up the pieces and try to find where their friends have gone. Also under attack by a powerful wizard strangely fixated on Garric himself, they discover a way into another world too. As each quest is fulfilled, so the Goddess of the Ice Realm is brought to an end.I enjoyed reading this, even though it follows exactly the same formula as the rest of the series. Split everyone up, let them have their own adventures and then bring them crashing back together at the end for the final fight. However, it is written so well that you can forgive the repetition. The twist towards the end, about who the Goddess is, was a good one and the hints throughout the story are subtle enough that the reader only guesses a few pages before the characters. Brilliant. Another good read - looking forward to the next.
I had enjoyed the Lord of the Isles original trilogy, so I was a little surprised when I found out that it had become a longer series. While this book was good, I don't know that I would have been able to follow who everyone was if I hadn't already read the other books in the series. This is definitely a book you want read in its proper sequence. It was nice to hear more about the characters that I had really come to enjoy, but the premise seems like it is being stretched out a bit by the author to keep the series going.
