This book is a power fantasy.

It's not about the plot or the characters or the worldbuilding, it's about doing all those things you wish you could do as unashamedly as possible. I might have enjoyed this book if I had realized that a bit earlier, however, I did not, and spent a lot of the book in conflict with it because I was expecting it to be more of a traditional fantasy/sci-fi.

The main character feels so out of place in the world. All of the "good" characters do. They feel like they've been plucked from our world and set down in a vaguely futuristic/historical fantasy setting, understanding things with our look on it and not something that could have been genuinely developed from living in that setting. As a power fantasy, that's the point of the book. The world's not fleshed out, but that's not the point of the book. There are things that feel like bad world-building, but they are there to play out the power fantasy. 

If you can suspend your disbelief enough to tag along for the ride, I can understand all the hype. It's well-written, there are so many impactful lines and phrases. If I had clued in a bit earlier that this was supposed to be a power fantasy, I think I would have enjoyed this more. Instead, I spent most of the book wondering why the systems are set up the way are because there is no way they could naturally end up that way because it's not sustainable. And then 75% of the way through, the reason was given and it was exactly what you would expect it to be in the context of the story, and that finally clued me into this being a power fantasy.

But if you're looking for a more traditional fantasy book with worldbuilding and complex political systems and the characters slowly working on sorting out what is going on around them in a natural way, this book is not for you.