This book is meticulous, and I loved it. It is a political fantasy, but also heavily character-driven. Perhaps I may have enjoyed Game of Thrones more if I could have gotten as interested in the characters as I did in Lysande, the narrator of The Councillor.

The beginning almost feels like the narration of a fugue state - except the fugue state is rife with politics. The pacing starts slow, but the last fourth of the book happens swiftly.

We meet Lysande at the beginning of the book and she is a scholar, a commoner, an addict, and a companion to a queen. She rapidly undergoes a shift of roles upon the death of the queen (not really a spoiler, it happens right at the beginning and is mentioned in the summary). We follow her thoughts as she weighs the pros and cons of which city-state ruler to appoint as the new king or queen, but also as she gains a taste for power herself. Of course, that isn't quite enough as she must also try and deal with possible magic rebellion and exposing whoever assassinated the previous queen.

The descriptor of "Machiavellian" for this book was not empty praise - it lives up to that description, and despite the slow pace, kept me interested. I had to pause and chew after most chapters, but it is high on the list of my current favorite reads of the year so far.