Forest Mage - Robin Hobb

A fresh story by Hobb, this book takes back to the Fantasy style of novels like those in the DnD line and such.

Humans, wizards, the stuff you like to read while sitting back, without expecting a Tolkien or Martin layered story that keeps your brain in overdrive to hold track.

The Speck plagie has decimated the ranks of King's Cavella Academy.  Those who survived the epidemic will never completely recover and many cadets have been forced to return to their families to face lives of disappointment and dependancy.  Far from being a broken man, Cadet Nevare Burvelle is unusually healthy after his convalescence and, as other cadets begin their final journey home with heavy hearts, he prepares to return to Widevale in high spirits, simply to visit and attend his brother's wedding.

Now that Nevare has freed himself of the Speck magic that endeavoured to turn him against his own people, a bright future awaits him.  But the plague has infected him in ways far more mysterious than the merely physical.  The Speck magic in his blood is dormant for now, but will roar to life and he will realise that his most dangerous enemy, an enemy that seeks to destroy all he loves, might dwell within him.

Clocking in at slightly over 800 pages, this novel was a nice read and I really grabbed every free minute I had to continue in it.  So that is saying something, isn`t it?