My god i love this series. It is one of the few series that i read where i REALLY can't find a good place to put it down. There is just constant action. In this book Tavi is on his way to the Canim homeland to drop off Varg and his crew and to escape all the assasination attemps becuase he was just named Princepts. Of course when they get there things are bad and they find that the Vord have ransacked the lands and all Varg's people are dead, along with all the other Canim people except for one little province. Everyone has to work together over this huge threat to save what people they can. Back in Alera the fight against the Vord is pretty much a loosing battle. The First Lord is dying and the war against the icemen is causing fewer Alerans to be able to fight against the Vord. Amara and Bernard are asked once again to help out the First Lord and do a special mission which will no doubt end their lives, and Isuana is asked to do something as well which may be beyond her abilities. The Vord as a force that seem impossible to beat and almost impossible to outrun and there is really nowhere left ot go. I love this series, have i said that yet? SPOILER ALERT!!! One thing that does bug me though is that people keep dying and then are not dead. In the first book i was shocked, but now in this one when someone gets that mortal wound and blackness over takes them, i am just like yeah whatever, they will be alive in the next chapter. I love Tavi's way of thinking and the way that War is not always the answer. I am super ecited to read the conclusion of this series at the end of this year, especially now that Gaius is dead and we are not 100% sure what was in those letters he said out. It will be nice to see the Vord be extinguished, which is likely what will happen, and I'm sure the Canim and Alerans will have to get togther and do this. I do like Varg and all the Canim, they are great Allies to have.