The Last Hunt (The Unicorn Chronicles, Book 4)

There are B Stories, and there are C Stories. And D Stories, and E Stories...there is quite a large amount of subplots in this book, and many characters. That might explain how it can stretch to a length of 605 pages. Some subplots didn't even feel necessary. Grimwold's part could be excised, as could the Queen's Players' part. (A cockatrice was unnecessary, and the consequence of the chapter in which the cockatrice is fetched doesn't arise until long after the chapter.)

Graumag's long exposition tale of how she came to be a dragon does introduce a concept that becomes important later on, but that does not justify its length. (not that it wasn't enjoyable. The story was enjoyable; it was merely superfluous.)

If memory serves, Rajib serves only two useful roles in this book: leading Ian when his sight is borrowed by the Blind Man when Fallon and Lightfoot aren't around and incapacitating Kenneth. Most of the time, he seems useless, and annoying because of his incessant use of his apparent catchphrase, 'sahib' and 'memsahib.' Speaking of largely useless characters with bothersome quirks, the Squijum's 'hotcha' is almost sickening with its meaninglessness and repetition, and, other than leading Cara to the Axis Mundi, the Squijum's only role seems to be comic relief. (I don't appreciate comic relief characters that don't also have usefulness.)

Though it has several flaws, I did enjoy it, and eagerly read in order to know what happened next.