I really loved the plot, once again an amazing story in an amazing world.
One of the best fantasy plots and characters of all the recent books I have read, however I think the book makes a hughe jump on the main character Mara... 90 % of the book she is worried about the family honour and the way to win the rivally against her mortal enemy, and on the other page, from a moment to another she becomes worried about the whole empire... That change in mentality needed a little bit more development ( we all know it was kevin that was responsable for the change, but still needed more work).
On the other hand, Tesio promised to be a great rival mind, and after hall the formula its always the same, he is just like Desio, and not has good as his father... Where is the great mind that was supossed to rival with MAra ??? He just another rival that does nothing and thinks vitory is on his grasp... he just tried to use her spies against her, tries to make a diferent assassination... and nothing more ...
I was a bit dissapointed with Tesio... since he was just an arrogant lord like Desio, and promised so much in the begining to be a great rival mind, and was nothing of the sort...
Just my 2 cents...
Nevertheless an amazing book which I loved all the way...
This saga is probably the best of all the Feist´s books in plot and cleverness...