I enjoyed this book, although it would be easy to misunderstand what it is going into it.

First of all, this is usually listed as a fantasy but it's more like historical fiction. It takes place in medieval Europe. There isn't much magic. There are a few things that could be magic, or they could be given natural explanations.

The book cover makes this story out to be an epic battle of good vs. evil. There isn't one single villain, though. It's more about a group of people and the circumstances that split them into smaller and smaller factions. My own interpretation is that "The Devil" in the story isn't a visible character, but more of an unseen force that turns people against each other.

I found the story to be enjoyable. For a Wolfe book, it's pretty straightforward. There are a couple of mysteries that I didn't solve, but that doesn't detract from the reading experience at all. This isn't considered to be a major Wolfe book, but it's a fun read and you can see the development of some ideas he would flesh out more in later works.