"It is a sad tale, as are all tales of..." yes, Middle Earth, but also Isle and Vale, apparently. Sad, but also well told and hard to put down. I was a little disappointed that it didn't have a better resolution. It was as though Frain adopted all of Tirrel's problems... but unfortunately, he didn't handle them any better than Tirrel. Still, I cared about the characters, for all their flaws, and if I was sometimes confused about the "prophecy", it didn't effect my enjoyment of the story. The writing was beautiful, and the world has progressed greatly from the "fan-fic" feel of the earlier Isle books. Trevyn gets points for being the most well-adjusted character in the series and the only one that learned from his travels and mistakes.