Maybe it's just me, but i feel the character development really sucked in this book. I'm talking about all the new people MC meets in Caspia or whatever that city's name was. That entire arc of the story was just terribly written and too brief, especially the scene where MC goes to that high society party. I had so much trouble following what was going on and all these new characters were introduced and i still wasn't sure who was who even towards the end of the book. I've come to expect better from David Burke, i'm usually a pretty big fan of his books, but this one sucked. The overall story is still not the greatest either.