Gavril, a poor love-struck artist, is visited one night by a dream of a murdered man. He learns that he is the estranged son of a lord of a distant land, and that his father was the man murdered in his dreams. He has, however, inherited far more than a castle and an icy realm, for the secret to his family's long reign is a baleful spirit that offers unimaginable destructive powers, but at a ghastly price...

The problem with this book is the pace. There's so many events crammed in that everything is rushed, and we jump from place to place, milestone to milestone, viewpoint to viewpoint, without any thoughtful pause for significant events. Travel seemed entirely too quick -- taking a couple of days to get from a sunny, tropical climate to an icy taiga doesn't seem feasible in an age of horse-drawn carriages. Abilities that supposedly take years to learn are mastered overnight. Profound relationships are formed between people who exchange scarcely a few sentences. Any other author, with this much material, would have written 3 books instead of 1.

With so much happening, and with the viewpoint switching between at least half a dozen people, it was impossible to get attached to any of the (many) characters. They were all distinct, had clear motivations and salient characteristics, but I never felt like I actually got to know them, so I never cared about them. They needed more time to develop, to interact, to reveal themselves and stamp themselves as individuals, not custom-made cogs inserted into the plot machine.

Some characters were rather perplexing, like the Emperor and his daughter. The Emperor's desperate affection for his young ward seemed misplaced, at odds with the rest of his personality (it would have made more sense if it had been romantic or sexual, instead of paternal). And I can't make heads or tails out of Karila, his daughter, which I cannot discuss due to spoilers -- suffice to say, she is presented as an ordinary child but has puzzling, mysterious characteristics that I wish had been explained, or at least remarked upon. I suppose that has been left to the sequels.

Another objection I have is that dire consequences were held over character's heads but never actually brought down -- for example, staying out for hours in a freezing blizzard without appropriate clothing, and yet not getting frostbite.

Despite all this, I rate the book highly because it is so competently written. Aside from a few gaffes like "fruitily alcoholic", the author's prose was clear, brisk, and full of detail, if a bit stiff. I liked the unusual setting inspired by Russia and featuring 18th century technology, like gunpowder and alchemy. It's nice to see a fantasy that isn't stuck in the Dark Ages. I was pleased by the presence of ghosts, and intrigued by the role of the guslyars. The Drakhaoul himself is an interesting idea. Several of the plot twists surprised even me, something that does not happen often.

This book contains no references to sex, but it does contain violence, descriptions of charred corpses and such. While it would be scary for children, I doubt any parent could object to their teenagers reading it.