It's been a while since a Riyria book was published, five years in fact, and fans of the series have watched lots of others books be published in the world of Elan, but none in the timeline of the originals, until now. This is of course a prequel story because Michael J. Sullivan is happy with where he ended the original series, but any Riyria story is better than none. This story takes us back in time to a mission where Royce and Hadrian are contracted to go on a road trip to stop a disgruntled Dwarf from destroying an entire city. This ancient dwarf has spent his entire life keeping Drumindor operational, and since it sits on top of a volcano, that's a good thing for everyone. When he is fired from his job for cost cutting reasons, he decides to use his knowledge to turn Drumindor into a massive bomb that will surely destroy the resort city of Tur Del Fur. It's up to Riyria to stop him.

The premise of this one is a little weak, which is basically an all expenses paid vacation for Royce, Hadrian, Gwen, and others to go to Tur Del Fur. This is the backdrop used to explore the budding romance between Royce and Gwen, and the first half of the book felt like a slowly meandering slice if life story that was a flimsy excuse to spend time with two beloved characters. A bunch of random occurrences happen until eventually the story starts to come together, and the real mission kicks off in earnest, and then is when it finally felt like a Riyria book. In the end it was great to spend time with Royce and Hadrian again, but I can't help feeling like this could have had the same impact with 100 less pages of the set-up.

Tim Gerard Reynolds narrates the audiobook version of this one as usual, and is awesome, as usual.