Reading this book proved to me that I haven't lost the touch. Two days! Two days to finish this practically perfect work of fiction! That being said... Stroud is a an incomparable writer. He triumphs over almost any fantasy writer I have read. To be sure (and it seems very brazenly insolent of me to say this), I didn't quite buy the sudden change in Nathaniel at the end... Logically, it didn't seem to add up. But, hey, IT DIDN'T MATTER!!! Stroud makes you laugh, love and (cruelly) pulls your heart out just seconds before the end. I warn you, though, regret is a side-effect of reading this series. You will regret is that the series isn't longer, that the author who accomplished the impossible didn't compromise himself in order to make the story longer or the impossible happen, and that you've already discovered it and, in so doing, you can't rediscover it again. READ THIS SERIES!