Hey, it’s Sanderson. I’ll give it a chance.

Taking place in the greater Magic the Gathering universe, there’s a feel for a huge world we’re only seeing a corner of. Names That Matter left and right and nowhere near enough time to learn what they all mean… but if you just go with it, you’ll figure out enough for this particular story.

On a smaller level, the point of view characters being a set of twins with magical powers but a shared drawback–each is blind for half the day while the other can see–is a common enough trope but done well. It’s actually interesting to (for the most part) only see the world from one twin’s point of view. Sanderson does unreliable narrators well.

Davriel (the other main character) is also wonderful. A neat power set–the summoning of demons bound to serve under contract has always appealed to me; plus temporarily stealing powers leads to nice variety–and a greatly amusing outlook on life. He doesn’t want to be a hero. He doesn’t particularly even want to work hard. But he’s got power and he doesn’t seem like a strictly bad person, just not a paragon of virtue.

Overall, I wish we’d had a bit more time in the world, but not enough to take away from all of Sanderson’s other projects. I may just have to check out some other Magic the Gathering fiction though. A shared multiverse with many worlds and authors mixed and matched? Could be cool.