In the beginning I was strongly reminded why I prefer to read high fantasy in my native language, it took me a couple of chapters to work out which unknown words are just the nautical vocabulary that my English lacks and which are Barker's unique Hundred Islands words. I got there, eventually - but never got used to ships being male in this world, even though it makes sense in context of the world.
The worldbuilding is the strength of this book. I'm not the most avid fantasy reader anymore, but at least to me the ideas seemed fresh and creative. They make sense, fit well together and we get a vivid glimpse into a world that is very different from ours, but not less harsh. 
Unfortunately, the prose itself is just not very good. The style feels clumsy while desperately trying to be regal and maybe even poetic and in the end it just reads pretentious without any real finesse.