Once again, told ya :) ;)

-The other good thing about this volume is that it humbles Strauss, but then shows that he may or may not have infinite tricks up his sleeve. He should have lost in battle several times, he has no magic to fight back against the Dhampires, and yet he seems to always win by outsmarting them-

The series the author did before this was all about characters trying to outsmart each other.

It really, really shows in the fights of this one.

-Lots of the mechanics of magic and the lines of friend and foe are explained in this volume, but even with lengthy explanations of what’s going on and a new representative for the human race showing up and turning the simple “rock, paper, scissors” game that Strauss, Black Swan, and the Dhampires played with one another into an extremely delicate and volatile system of checks and balances, with death promised at the end.-

One of my fav things about the series is how in *every one* of the first three volumes, it sets a status quo of the power balance, then shatters it by the end of the volume.