This is another one that comes from the early days of fantasy, which might account for some of the stranger dialogue. It’s not as overly formal as many of the early fantasy novels (though there is a little of that), but every once in a while, it just doesn’t seem like natural conversation. Personally, I’m totally fine with that, just because I enjoy the story and the characters so much. It’s kind of like when I forgive the old sci-fi TV shows for their bad CGI. The story is more important.
So, the story. It starts out as a journey, but oddly not a quest, unless you think of the object of the quest as simply staying alive and seeing as much of the country as possible. You see, (slight spoiler alert, but it’s from near the beginning) Hal is a prince, soon to be king over a country that has had a long line of really evil men sitting on the throne. He escaped from the torture chamber where the king held him, and decided to travel the country in the hopes of raising enough support to actually claim the throne once the king dies (rather than being killed or made a puppet by all the cruel and ambitious men at court, you know). So it’s a process of meeting people and finding allies, and sometimes rescuing those allies from the king, until the king dies (of an STD, as it happens; Hal doesn’t want to kill him). After that, there’s the proper, full on battle to cover.
Through everything, it’s the relationship between Hal and Alan that carries it, at least for me. You could say it carries everything for them as well, since they don’t do nearly as well apart as they do together. Which means it’s probably a good thing for the story that their relationship does become a little bit strained at times, especially in the buildup to the final climactic battle. It’s not that they like each other any less, but that Alan has a secret he thinks he absolutely must not tell Hal, and that causes some friction. Which adds some variety and tension to the story, allowing the happy ending to have that little bit of extra joy with that final resolution between the two.
Also, I really like Hal’s description of bravery.