Having read several of the author's books before and been disappointed by one or two, I was pleasantly surprised by this one which I thoroughly enjoyed. It takes the form of a series of letters by a man who is telling the story of his younger self to a friend, who we gradually realise is a King and later, exactly who it is.

Nazhuret grows up in a boy's school which takes only those of a certain social standing and yet he has no clue as to his parentage. His fees are paid by an uncle he doesn't know, who at one point fails to pay for a whole year so that Nazhuret has to work as school servant role. When the fees are subsquently paid, he receives a year's wage. The bright spot in his existence when he is around 12 years old is a friendship with the daughter of a local Duke, but she suddenly disappears and rumours circulate that her father has killed her, or that she has been sent away pregnant.

Nazhuret is a surprisingly sunny boy considering that some of his experiences at school, especially being sexual abused by at least one of the masters, wouldn't seem to lend him a phlegmatic disposition. He gradually becomes a fixture of the school and takes on an unpaid teaching role, but eventually the school decides to pay someone and his only choice is either to be recruited into the army of the duke who may have killed his daughter or to abscond. He does the latter and meets a mysterious character in a building on the outskirts of town: an encounter that will shape the whole of his life. For this man will teach him, among other things, to become a trained killer and an optician.

I won't say any more about the plot but I loved the oblique style of narrative and the characters, especially Arlin, an old acquaintance from school days who turns up at opportune moments and is, among other things, a card sharp and an expert with horses, knife throwing and rapier fighting, plus other larger than life people such as King Rudof and Nazhuret's mentor. Nazuret himself is interesting: he views himself as horribly ugly but it gradually becomes clear that he resembles the people who live in another country who are traditional enemies of the land where he lives. Even horses are well developed as personalities, especially Arlin's horse, Sabia. There are some good twists in the story also. So a well deserved 5 stars. ( )

A re-read after many years. I loved this book so much in 1991 ish when it was a new paperback. I was not sure I should read it again in case it didn't stand up to my current jaded reading squint. But it was wonderful and had me up too late finishing it. My kind of adventure with delightful genre mashing and world skewing. ( )

Got through most of the first few chapters and decided I wasn't interested enough in the world, the protagonist, or the story-line. Read a chapter in the middle and the two at the end, and that was satisfactory.
Other reviewers give a more positive view, which is probably correct if this kind of book fits your fancy.

However, I have liked other works by MacAvoy, especially "Tea with the Black Dragon." ( )

I really like this book. If you can enjoy minimal-magic fantasy and you haven't read this book, I recommend it. By minimal magic fantasy, I mean that no one relies on spells or prayer for results in day to day life, there may be no more apparent magic than in our world but the setting is recognizably not our world another planet in our universe. A coming of age story about a young man who starts off with no known family other than support at a military school and no place in his society that he wants to accept. ( )

Oh wow, what a book. I was reaching for a way to describe the feel of it, and I suppose the best one was 'Diana Wynne Jones meets Umberto Eco,' and yet not. There is the sense of a thoroughly sensible fantasy setting, not flashy but deep. Erudite things happen, there is learning and science (mindfulness!) and wisdom, and then, later, oh, yes, the wars and the intrigue and the occasional hint of the supernatural. Often dark, never grim, sometimes horrible, always told with a light touch that emphasises the narrators interests and perceptions, revealing character and world by omission or brusque understatement.

Nazhuret is raised in a military academy with no knowledge of his origins, as much a servant as a student, putting off the inevitable day when he must take service with a Duke or hit the road. On the eve of his final day, he comes oddly under the tutelage of the mysterious Powl, and an apprenticeship begins. Powl makes Nazhuret ready for the world, but is the world ready for Nazhuret? Sent out to find his own way, Nazhuret wanders and has =adventures and learns unpleasant lessons and has ambiguous and confusing encounters that culminate in an attempt to thwart an attack on the king.

It's a terrific tale, a bildungsroman and a fantasy classic that shows what you can do with a short tight tale and a little thought and learning about the world and about people. A new favourite. ( )