I had great anticipation of this book, primarily because the original trilogy influenced me when I was a bit younger. This book fell far short of my expectations. I suppose that some letdown was inevetible, based on magic of the previous books, but I had a hard time accepting the premise of the storyline and the characters. The book started out with great promise, but as it progressed, it got more rushed. As others have mentioned, the plot and especially the character development was weak. The great thing about the other DL books was the characters that every reader could identify with. I also agree that the story should have been made a trilogy, because of the above mentioed points. I am unsure of the political problems behind the TSR and authors, as others have alluded to, but this book just had no "magic" or spark to hold your attention. I guess I expected the authors to grab me with a spellbinding story like they have in the past. The true problem with this story is that we, as readers of DL, expect that all will be well in the end, that the heroes will triumph, and that the sun willl rise tomorrow. Isn't that is what fantasy is all about, that our heroes live, or at least die heroic deaths, so that the world goes on? I am very dissapointed in this book, and while it is an end to the original DL series, it is also an end to my DL world, to which I probably, and sadly, will not return.