Likeable read, and I enjoyed the focus on maps (I seem to be reading a lot of fantasy books about maps recently, quite by chance, and they've all been pretty good) and the general idea of the lighthouse. The world-building here is excellent, with lots of interesting and creepy details that are all firmly set in the present, by which I mean there's no dragging the narrative down with the various histories of a place/person since the year dot. If I'm perfectly honest, I found the world more interesting than the characters. Valen's a decent enough protagonist but there is, especially in the first half, a lot of whining and abortive running away and that gets a wee bit repetitive though he does improve in the second half, and I don't care remotely about his substance abuse issues.

Flesh and Spirit ends on a cliffhanger, and I'm planning to read the concluding volume soon so it'll be interesting to see if my theories pan out. I've got a good idea, I think, who the lost prince is and what the stolen gift is (the last, at least, seems plainly obvious) but it's not like I haven't been wrong before.