Beagle is a master wordsmith, capable of conveying complex images in a few words: "A sway in the air" says all that needs to be said about a fox changing into a man. There is more than skill involved in his melodic style; there is genius in it: "Lukassa laughed aloud, and the sound was as sweet as the sound that ice-covered twigs make in the spring, chiming and cracking together." His words shift mood in an instant, sway from mundane to mystical, and always offer phrases that are more than the sum of their parts; note how Tikat remembers the fox: "Bones full of darkness, blood thick and cold with ancient mysteries." Beagle also manages to elicit simultaneously almost contradictory responses from his language: The air crumpled again, close behind him [Arshadin]. A ripple appeared in it, exactly like the circles that spread out and...