One of the problems with this series is that it has two protagonists, separated except for the male's love and devotion to the female, and that although I find the male protagonists' adventures rather interesting, I am expected to put up with the female's tiresome circumstances as well. By the end of this volume, which I finished reading back in '99, I was no longer interested in reading about "Queen Inos." Her sorry plight was an old cliche to begin with: can the high-born, well-bred princess overcome the "stuffiness" of her training to become a successful queen without losing her sense of humanity and connection with the masses? Puleeez!!! The answer is only of concern if we truly felt she was one of "the masses" (that includes US, the readers) to begin with. For this sort of thing, done in a real and thus more interesting setting, pull some volumes of Charles Dickens off the shelf. Books like these are what gives fantasy a bad name in the minds of many... There is no indication so far that ANY of this will resolve in a way that was worth devoting nearly 2,000 pages to! Although I suppose that I will eventually read the third book in the series, given enough time... no one should hold their breath waiting for my review of it. For those who actually enjoyed this series, I recommend the numerous series of David Eddings that dealt with the same sort of scenarios, but did it with a lot more gusto, humor, variety, and INTERESTING CHARACTERS! Still, it should surprise no one that the genre is dominated by formulaic adventures in which authors seem to be paid by the word. I would steer readers away from THIS Duncan series and back toward some of the better ones. To me it looks like Duncan is merely churning out more of the same. My tastes have turned toward the more humorous vein of fantasy. For ponderous outings like this, it is far better to read ACTUAL historical fiction where there is at least some educational benefit for the time that is spent. These sorts of formulaic meanderings are no longer of interest to me, or (I suspect) many fantasy readers who have already read the same sort of thing but in a different package (and probably, using far fewer words to relate the same content!!!)

Rap's travels and travails show us more of the world of Pandemia; Inos struggles to stay afloat in Zark's male-chauvinist culture.

Gathmore and Rap are captured by the mad Jotunn raider, Kalkor, and meet up on his ship with old "friend" Darad.

In a sequence that is equally sad and lovely and horrifying, we see just what kind of power sorcerors weild -- and how after a while they become rather casual and capricious about how they treat mere mundanes, even mundanes close to them.

Duncan's version of dragons is neat, i must say, and the gnome sorceror who is Warden of the Dragon Reaches is one of the most interesting and sympathetic characters in the series -- gnomes are considered disgusting and sub-human by the other races, but they have feelings -- they can hurt and love and hate, too.

Captured by one of the Four -- the four witches and warlocks who regulate the use of magic under the Compact, who have been using Rap and Inos as gaming pieces in their own internal and global intrigues -- Rap and Gathmore and Jalon are given one possible chance to rescue Inos from marriage to Azak.

It's a race against time...

And Time almost always wins in the end.

Will Rap and Gathmore arrive in time to Stop The Wedding?

(Three stars this time because this one is primarily a bridge, though it contains important elements of the story as a whole; also, we get to see something about the Elves, this time.)

Dave Duncan is one of the best scifi/fantasy writers there are every story is original and fresh he builds characters you love to see succeed and vilans you can't wait to see die a horible death. This is the third book of one of the best series ever written; Rap the lost stable boy with slowly emerging magical powers wonders the world in search of his love and his queen, Inos. Facing pirates and worse he tries to reach a distant waste land to save Inos from a barbarian king.

Studied and relied on this book. Studied 'Exam Cram' for about 15 hours after I started scoring 90% on practice test in this book. ExamCram had good additional hints and tips. Exam Cram practice tests are harder, and has some material not covered in this book. However, this book has better explination of the material covered.

VB5 was my first certification test and I passed on my first try.

It is a good book to passing the exam and i feel good by taking this book and i am looking for other books from new riders

The best thing about this book is the CD that comes with it. The computer graded test are great and help you locate your trouble areas. It's not going to show the exact questions that will be on your particular test (i.e. cheat). The practice exams (and flashcard test)will test your readiness to take the MCSD Visual Basic 5 certification exam offered by ICCP. Even if your not going to take the test the book and computer aided testing software give all Visual Basic programmers strict coding guidlines. You won't just learn how to pass the test you'll also learn good coding techniques. I wouldn't rely solely on just this book as your only source/means to pass the test, you'll have to work very hard to become certified in any worthwhile field. If more books came with test like these you can mark me down as a potential buyer.