Unclean

The first book of a trilogy on Thay and its Red Wizards, and of Szass Tam and his grab for more power. It's a decent read, but slow at times. I'm ambivalent about the book. The highlights would be the political manoeuvrings and character interactions; really well done.

It's a great overarching plot that the book kicks off, filled with assassinations, manipulations, espionage, backstabbing, blackmailing and even a war with the undead. I can't wait to see how this turns off. What I didn't like, is also because of this overarching plot and how it meshes with sub-plots.

I think the story tried to kick too many things off simultaneously. For the first half, I'm given a platter with a whole bunch of characters and not quite sure who the protagonists are. That would come in another quarter of the book, towards the end. It's not bad, it's just feels a little unfocused I suppose.

But I did enjoy reading it. The characters were excellent, even the minor ones, which was why I had trouble figuring them out. Book one most definitely isn't meant to stand on its own. It's just setting things up for the next book, and from the set up, it should be a really interesting one.