Donaldson uses language in a very artistic, poetic manner. However, his creative use of words was the only thing about this novel that made it at all readable.

The world presented is shallow and simplistic, the characters are monochromatic, the story events are monotonous and repetitous (and they traveled yet another day, stopping to eat around noon....) and the whole work is marred by Donaldson's preachy attempts at depicting the superior morality of pacifism.

The main character is a pathetic self-pitying rapist who loves to make a grand cynical drama out of every narcissism that he can come up with. The supporting characters are one-dimensional and static; their actions are predictable from their first appearance in the story. The geography is unrealistic and poorly detailed and the historical backdrop is laughably juvenile.

Donaldson obviously thought he could emulate Tolkien's success by "borrowing" the main plot elements of Lord of the Rings, spreading it over a fairy-tale history, and sprinkling it with creative word usages. Unfortunately for him, it takes much more than this to craft a fine fantasy novel.