Not bad! This is helped out by some commercial fiction practices, most notably pacing wise. Everything in this clocked into fine; a click up from commercial fiction but nothing mind blowing.

But I think that’s sort of the target it was trying to hit. It goes deliberately against epic fantasy conventions and expectations and I think that will garner a decent readership. It doesn’t have long ass info dumps, let me tell you about my fantasy city, or diatribes. The characters aren’t incredible but there are some character moments that are quite good. There’s fun/interesting/cool setting details and magic system stuff. It’s not one billion pages.

It’s pretty much exactly what it says it is, so 3 stars for me. It didn’t exceed expectations, but it’s a perfectly serviceable fantasy romp. I’m not sure I’ll continue with it. The narration on audible was pretty good, not fantastic. Characters are different enough that most of the time it’s easy to follow, but not always. And I wasn’t blown away, so I’m debating whether to continue with the trilogy or try and find something that I’ll like more.