Each character in this novel has a distinct voice and personality, even including some of the stableboys scrambling to hold a horse's head to earn a penny. There are no spearcarriers in this story, unlike some fantasy novels where acres of soldiers line up for the hero to kill as impersonally as possible.

While Wart and Emerald do not learn the names of every person who passes them by in an inn, each person who speaks does so as an individual.

This becomes very clear when the pattern is broken: Emerald cannot tell which name belongs to which of two men-at-arms, who are bound by obedience spells to the sorcerers. We understand thereby that the obedience spells make the men-at-arms dull and de-personalized and incapable of independent action, and so are far different from the loyalty spells that bind the Blades to energetic personal service, with...