User blog comment:Ferretmaiden/The Sable Quean Lame?/@comment-1421927-20100512021642

I enjoyed TSQ as much as the next dude (I was yelling under the covers with my flashlight when you think Vilaya dies...but didn't!), but, there was one thing I didn't like. But I'll get to that later.

Vilaya, like you said, was a rather new and interesting character. Instead of the "I AM STRONG!! ME DEFEAT EVVIEBODY!!! ME DIE NOW CUZ ME STUPID!!!" warlord that we have seen a lot of, (Sans Cluny and Slagar, bot really great villains) we have a villainess who is much more of the female bad guy you see a lot in the movies: sort of moody, slick, sneaky. A very cool villain.

Zwilt's death was a good one; instead of the tried-and-true, but rather predictable, Sword Master killing him, we have a vengeful mother finish him off. The "Martin possessed me and I did it" sort of thing was eh, I mean, this guy killed the lady's husband and for all she knows her kids too, and as any mother would, she killed him.

Vilaya's real death bugged me. Introducing a brand new character at the last 50 pages was annoying, especially a major character. It would be about like having Lonna introduced 40 pages before the end; it's weird. And then, Buckler doesn't even get the sweet justice of killing the lady, but this random Badger girl who just decided to join the Blood-Bath-Party? Eh.

The last thing that was odd was the strategically-placed murders that are supposed to rip your heart out and roast it over a white-hot fire, while you are weeping hysterically the entire time. I didn't cry at all (I think) in this book. Really, the only thing that upset me, heh, was when I thought Vilaya had been killed half way through the book. I got really angry. I finished the book and went, "Woah, wait...Who died at the end?"

But, that's just my opinion. Overall though, a good book.