During a festival to honor their primary goddess an island's population all drowns on land. Did they somehow offend their goddess or has another deity struck at her by killing her chosen people? For the awkward group of survivors who suddenly found themselves forced to leave that day its a serious question. In fear they decide to stick together and head inland away from the sea but only one of them has even an academic knowledge of the mainland or the many gods worshiped there but they quickly realize at least one god wants them to work together, the god of fate and divination. In the midst of this confusion they encounter a being they had all thought was just myth, a wizard. The wizard appears friendly and in return all she wants is a little help. They suspect that they really have no choice in the matter.

I was in the mood for fantasy and I like a quirky cast of characters, but I have to admit I couldn't even finish it. The actual writing is far better than my own and there are plenty of mediocre writers that are highly rated who could learn something from this author. But by the time the characters were all introduced there was only one I found intriguing and sadly half of the reason I was interested in her died early on. The world building of the doomed island wasn't bad, but the mainland had little depth until they reached the wizard's tower. Now here was something potentially interesting, but the cliche wizard's first task to bring down a legendary beast turned out to be remarkably fast and simple. Maybe I just expect too much from mythic level monsters? 

Reading other reviews I'm in the minority, with most praising it's great characters and deep world building. Overall, it has a four star rating although I wouldn't go further than three stars and that's primarily based on technical ability. I didn't think it was bad, just boring. Reviewers also praised Adam Sims' narration in the audiobook version.