This book was everything it was advertised to be and more - brilliant characters, well-developed world, thoughtful approach to conflict and...happy. Not cheerful, but overall joyful.

I've seen this book reviewed as an antidote to "grimdark" fiction where everything is evil and horrible and people are the worst, and it is. But it's not sunshine or rainbows or a world where everything is perfect. But it is a world where it is possible to be fundamentally a good person and act that way and not end up with your head on a pike. And there's something wonderful about writing serious, complex fantasy politics while insisting that your main character hold on to a certain "goodness".

Also, I got completely lost in this book in the "swept away by narrative" sense and that so rarely happens anymore.

Interesting that the only two books this year to have gotten 5 stars from me have had this ideological bent that if you work hard and try hard and do good when you can, you and the world will be better for it.