Melina Marchetta has written teenage fiction before, Looking for Alibrandi and Saving Francesca being two notable examples, but as far as I know this is her first venture into the fantasy world. I’ve just read a review in an Australian librarian’s blog which found it disappointing. I have to say that for me it was just the opposite. I liked the two earlier books I’ve read quite a lot, but I loved this. For me it was one of those wonderful reading experiences where half way through I paused and thought “half of me wants to read fast to know how the story evolves, to find out what happens, and half of me wants to stop and save the rest, to savour it as slowly as possible hoping I will never get to the end. I can’t remember being as completely drawn into a different world since I read The Hobbit about 45 years ago. That is not to say this is that sort of fantasy: all these characters are human. I found her world of warring kingdoms and diffferent races completely believable, the characters made me feel I was fighting and loving and hurting alongside them, and I laughed and cried. There’s fighting, warfare, friendship and love, loyalty and betrayal, gentleness and brutality, honesty and dishonesty, intellect and emotion, royalty, nobles and commoners, good and evil, all wrapped in a plot that gallops along, that I’m not even going to start explaining, and writing that is beautiful and wise. It’s a teenage/young adult/adult read. Even if you think you don’t like fantasy, this might be well worth the effort of suspending prejudice as well as disbelief.