I enjoyed this book (and the previous two) immensely. It somehow made a change to read about a hero and heroine who were married, finding themselves in each other, and struggling to achieve an end that satisfied them both. The whole book, designed around a river journey with only one really tense event, seems to drift along rather like a quiet stream, but a pleasantly calm stream that left me feeling - well just tiny bit better than when I started it.
Most fantasy nowadays deals with families massacred, heroes left with nothing facing death and disaster, heroines blind or maimed, societies ruined, villages burnt. Traitors abound, truth is scarce, and betrayal the nature of almost every character. OK so it's like that in the real world (well a bit anyway). Not in the Sharing Knife books - and it is a pleasant change. Surely we read fantasy to escape - well I do anyway. Enough despair in Eastenders if that's what you want! There is some unpleasantness but that's only to be expected however, in general, the characters are, on the whole nice people at meeting or turn into nice people later.
I suppose one word describes this book, and the others, NICE. And that isn't a bad thing in today's world (in fact and fantasy). Dag and Fawn take centre stage but are surrounded by a well drawn cast of supporters in this third book.
True, it doesn't go very far or take them forward (in the development of their marriage, or that of Fawn or Dag), but one gets a good idea of where they are going.
I wonder, is this the last book. If it is there are a number of unanswered questions about the fantasy world in which Dag and Fawn live. Many clues appear in the text and seem to need either development or explanation. It also seems that Dag has not reached a final conclusion at the end not has Fawn found a place for them to live. So I for one would certainly like to read more of these two NICE people and will go back to the books now and again.
