Marcus D'Ivoire, Vordani Captain, has a new boss. Colonel Janus bet Vhalnich has come to take over the forces on behalf of the king and reclaim the city of Ashe-Katarion. Along the way, they are beset with problems, including some they could never have predicted, but Marcus is left wondering if Janus had another agenda all along and whose side is anyone really on. 
 I have read Django Wexler's fantasy novels before and really enjoyed them. This one was well written and I did like the characters (particularly Janus and Winder Ihernglass) but I am not a fan of military strategy and this one just had far too much of that for me (along the lines of "The Two Towers", you could skip large chunks and not have got very far very fast). Since I actually read it because I wanted to get the background to "The Shadow Throne", this was not an enormous issue but I certainly did heave a sigh of relief when there was a bit more interesting action at the end. 
 Not a great read for me, but a reasonable means to an end; I have started "The Shadow Throne" already and am finding that much more my style!