Well, I read this...
 
It was actually hilarious how closed-minded Prince Bifalt was in this. As he says himself, he has little intelligence or imagination, so it makes sense that he's unable to be empathetic throughout the WHOLE book. 
 
And this brings me on to my next point - it was basically just a rehashing of Thomas Covenant. Namely in there being a reluctant anti-hero who needs to learn major life lessons to save the world, while also being held semi-hostage in a fortress, having information withheld from him by calm, manipulative sorcerers.  
 
It was also pretty misogynistic for a book written in 2017... For the first 200 pages the only women were servants and/or sexual objects. And of course, on the very last page one of them just randomly kisses Bifalt after he's had zero relationship with her. Not to say misogyny is acceptable in 80s fantasy, but it’s a thing everyone is fully aware of these days, so is even less excusable in modern fantasy. 
 
There was also some pretty glaring racism - the narrator describes people who I assume were meant to look like East Asian people as having 'yellow skin' - "Black, brown, and yellow skins mingled with white"... Not to mention the word 'savages' being used in reference to Native American type characters WAY too often. Bifalt was corrected to not use it, but then both he and the narrator continue to use the word. Just not necessary, especially as the characters weren't ‘savage’ at all. 
 
Even ignoring all this problematic stuff, it was just an infuriating read for the most part. The constant withholding of information + Bifalt being a raging arsehole just wasn't that fun to read. It felt different somehow in the Thomas Covenant series, or maybe I've just grown as a reader and person. 
 
I was actually intrigued by the story, and did need to know how it ended so finished the book, but there were too many red flags for me to continue this series.