This was…not for me. 

The world building and character development are there. There is an intriguing concept of a plot. However, this was so, so, so slow. And I like slow books. This read like a dry biography. It felt like this was the background info that is usually revealed in small anecdotes, flashbacks, and veiled references - like the entire book was leading up to where the story should have started. It was a struggle to pay attention to this, or even care about what was happening.