I’ve had this book on my shelf for over a year. I read Shadow of the Gods last winter and really enjoyed it. I figured that I would need to start collecting his backlist and give them a go too. I read Hunger of the Gods a couple months ago and it was brilliant. I then talked Dini (I’ve linked her review) into buddy reading this with me and we jumped in. I am so glad that I picked this up because I will now be buying the rest of the series to continue.

I’m not even sure how to start this. Gwynne’s books are so full amazing characters, world-building, and a lot of surprises. I will start with the actual pace of the book. It was a bit slow going but I didn’t feel like it took me a long time to read. I made pretty good progress, but the actual plot takes a while to get going. Given this is the first in a series, so that’s always something that I aspect. There’s several POV’s, just like his other books and I really enjoyed them. He’s actually really good at balancing out his character POV’s, even with so many of them. Funny, this is actually his first book. I didn’t even realize this was a debut, until the end! The plot itself has a decent amount of world-building with a lot of political intrigue. There’s a lot of moving pieces and it’s actually not very hard to follow. It’s one of the things that I love about Gwynne’s books! I never feel like there’s a ton of info dumping and I don’t get lost in the descriptions. It’s quite easy to follow.

The characters are what make this book! I will now think of Gwynne, when I want to read about characters with a lot of depth, and awesome character arcs. I will always be weary of falling in love with characters when it comes to any epic fantasy. All the same, it’s so hard to hold back! Gwynne has a way to weaving in these side characters that make such a huge impact. You don’t even realize it until later when you are fearing for their lives. I remember a couple of times when Dini and I were getting really upset about some of them and becoming a bit aggressive in our revenge plots. haha!

I think there’s a lot of things that are moving to make some really epic moments further in the series. I would have loved a little more insight about the actual magic that’s at play. I’m still quite in the dark, which could be on purpose, but I would have loved to understand it better. I am being a bit nit-picky here because I have his newest series to compare to.

Overall, this was such a great start to the series. There’s a lot of amazing characters and I cannot wait to see where they go in the series. I’m only mildly terrified for them, haha. I hope to get more clarity about some of the magical elements! Even though, it was a slower paced fantasy, it’s very easy to read. I’m definitely excited to jump into the next one asap!