So-- all that nice stuff I said about the last book? (The Silent Blade)
All gone in this one.
Salvatore chooses to focus on Wulfgar (and only wulfgar-- no Drizzt or anything in this book, other than references), who is probably the least interesting of all his main characters. Not a terrible tactic, as he gets to flesh out Wulfgar's character and make him more 3-dimensional... However, I think the real dimension was added in the LAST book thanks to Wulfgar's alcoholism. It's a bit sad that most of the character development in this book actually happened in the previous book.
The story gets streeeetched out, including many long descriptions of the residents of Auckney, a new town and set of characters not previously introduced. Most of them are pretty uninteresting, although I loved the Jaka Sculi character.
In the end, Wulfgar makes some pretty unlikely choices and
(show spoiler)
So, this book wasn't my favorite. It got 4 stars out of "I-couldn't-put-it-down"-ness rather than out of goodness. Oh well. Hope the next book is as cool as "The Silent Blade."