I've enjoyed reading all of the Vlad Taltos books, sometimes more and sometimes less, but always with enjoyment. This book is simultaneously one of the better ones--it's clever--and also perhaps a bit tired. The story is fun, but the idea of the main character being under some kind of doom for nearly the entire series is both a signature of the series and grounds for a complaint. There's no anxiety that he's not going to get out of it, it's more a question of how and when.