Great, although not as good as Royal Assassin. I still read it unreasonably quickly considering it was 700 pages.

The plot was weirdly meandering - the first part of the book is fantastic and driven, but it suddenly shifts gears and becomes almost a different book. The pacing is just awkward starting about a quarter of the way through and never really improves.

The "quest" part drags - it's hard to stay invested in the post-Skill Road part of the book. I still enjoyed that portion for its emotional resonance, but it was a long way to get there. Although the threat of the coterie never goes away, it generally becomes less frightening. I also didn't love the development of Regal: in RA he managed to be smart and conniving rather than strictly powerful and I may have preferred that.

RA had this great feeling of sinking, a mounting dread knowing everything had to collapse eventually, but that same feeling wasn't present in AQ.