Tymon's current intervention involves engineering the death of the headstrong glory-hound Prince Daras of Borasur, who will otherwise blunder his country and its neighbors into a devastating war.

Casualties are his reluctant fiancé Princess Ashesa of Morushe, guilt-ridden over being the instrument of Daras's demise, and the prince's admiring younger brother Galan, now obsessed with vengeance.

A complicated sequence of events follows involving Ashesa, Galan, Seb, and many others, including the scheming Duke Laras, Laras's even more scheming henchman Vor, aged puppet-pretender to Borasur's throne Lord Molic, the servant Takren, who is more than he seems, the interfering goddess Amaet, a young man named Korik, who finds himself drafted as Tymon's apprentice, and a nameless fiend called up by Galan that needs to be banished.

[3] A saying attributed to Tymon appears as a chapter heading in Black Kath's Daughter (2012), the next volume of "The Laws of Power," as do a number of quotations from "The Annals of Dommar the Beast," another character in The Long Look.

"[5] Jackie Cassada in Library Journal considers the novel "equal parts dark comedy and fantasy adventure [that] should appeal to those who enjoy tales of derring-do that are ever so slightly off the beaten path.

"[6] Sally Estes in Booklist feels "Parks successfully conjures an evil magician with a difference ... at heart a kind, gentle man ... who suffer[s] the curse [of] the ability to see future horrors that will occur unless action is taken.