Cassie McCullagh

Harvard is sent to this school of the powdered women, which is where I think some of our disconcertion might come from because this is basically a sex college.

Of sorts, where students, both male and female, are taught the arts.

The ropes, yeah.

And, you know, that's an ancient tradition, I suppose.

Now, is that an issue for you?

Did you feel like this was just exposition, exposition, exposition and not actually a standalone novel on its own?

Well, I do actually feel unlike George R.R.

Martin, whose description seems to go on for pages and pages and you just, please give me some dialogue, dialogue, just anything.

I actually found the writing really quite at a high level.

Yeah, I think it is masterful.

One of the interesting absences from this first book, at least, in the Ghan world is that weird sort of magic or external forces possibly from outer space, which is such a feature of Raymond E. Feist's other work.

That medieval world that's constructed, we do see it across different cycles of books and across different authors.

What do you think that's about?

Is it a kind of whiteness or is it a bit unsettling in that way?

It will be on the top of the lists for many, many months, I suspect.

And it is straight down the middle, a traditional fantasy book.

And you see the big arcs begin.

You see the beginnings of how the storyline will evolve.

And yeah, it is a guilty and comfort read, a guilty pleasure and a comfort read.

And I'm happy with that.