There are many beautifully descriptive passages, mostly of the wind & snow; the best are those concerninging the magical horse Althansor. Unfortunately, there are many of them, and I found my heart beginning to sink whenever another chapter began with another beautifully descriptive passage about the wind & snow.

I never did discover a plot. The human characters came and went without any real impact, either on the story or on me, although the magical horse is characterized probably better than most. Peter Lake does span the whole novel, but he spends the final part in a daze of incomprehension which I shared. The occasional moments of drama all resolved easily and without any great surprises.

I was irritated by the wholesale dismissal of non-central characters, but it seemed I was expected to believe in the city (I am reluctant to call it New York because it is obviously not a real place) and care what happened to it.

In the end, I felt no attachment to the city, and it seemed, finally, that the author didn't either.