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Mar 12, 2012librarysteph rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
I initially found the concept of people being linked to chess pieces in a large scale game of wizard chess to be silly and strange. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the novel and think it was well executed. This style of fantasy that combines our world with a fantastic one is very effective for teens. It allows them to deal with issues like war and family drama at a safe distance. At at the same time they feel close to the action because of the character from our world who sees things as they would and uses contemporary slang amongst the backdrop of knightly banter. I usually prefer this type of story to be in 1st person narrative but Wood did a good job of making it work without this. I thought the ending was original, creative and appropriate. It defined the book for me and I think I would have preferred for this to be a stand-alone novel rather than a trilogy because it’s rare I’m so pleased with an ending. The novel flowed nicely so I finished it quickly but it had some memorable parts, separating it from other quick reads.