Scattered across an inhospitable sea linked only by airships working on a few safe currents are a number of island kingdoms. Over recent years a wasting disease has gripped these kingdoms causing crops to fail, fishing areas to run dry and even slowly killing people. Two of these kingdoms are seeking an alliance through marriage to offset these problems. However nobody knows that prince Nikandr of Khalakovo has contracted the wasting putting the alliance into jeopardy. As part of the celebration the Dukes of the other kingdoms arrive in Khalakovo, almost immediately the grand duke is attacked by a summoned spirit and killed. Nikandr is tasked with finding the culprit, the lead suspect is autistic child who has a strange affinity with Nikandr. Nikander believes the boy is merely the puppet of a shadow group with sinister motives and his strange powers may in fact hold the key to dispelling the wasting.
Beaulieu's world building is impressive with cultures, history and magic integrated seamlessly. Initially I found his characterization impressive with representatives from the various groups portrayed with complex motives. However as the story progressed much of this was pushed to the side with a number of characters ending up as one-dimensional cartoon villains. This stems from the novels biggest problem; mistimed pacing. Everything feels far too rushed and interesting events and character progression loses a lot of significance. Rehada's shifts in view points I felt was particularly unbelievable in such a short amount of time.
Overall Beaulieu's world building is highly impressive and his story is intriguing and original, rushed pacing however robs this novels of key elements that could have made it great. 7/10.
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