so if you start the book it's a 2 star and climbs more and more the deeper you read this book. The first 1/3 of the book is sooo slow but once it starts to build, you'll be happy you kept reading. It's a surprisingly good strong ending and I can't wait to read the next installment. ( )

I want to give this four stars. It was a good book... I think. It just didn't stick. I had to reread it halfway through even though I didn't leave it for too long.

I really wanted to feel more invested, but some scenes really suffered from telling, not showing. Maybe the writing was a smidge too modern for the setting. I'm still going to count myself a fan of David Dalglish and hope his writing gets more polished!

A lot of reviews liken it to A Game of Thrones, but other than naming a place Riverrun and occasionally doing that fun thing where they talk about a person like they're actually the animal of their logo, I didn't see it. It felt more like Brent Weeks' [b:The Way of Shadows|3227063|The Way of Shadows (Night Angel, #1)|Brent Weeks|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327881551s/3227063.jpg|3261241].

I had a hard time getting into this one. Might not be the books fault... it took me a while to read it and I was reading another fantasy book at the same time so it ended up being disjointed. It wasn't bad. I might try reading the next one. ( )

Ok read, didn’t really capture my attention. ( )

This is just painfully ordinary. A plethora of characters unremarkable in their remarkableness (the epic ruthless thief-guild-leader; the beautiful dagger-wielding sneak thief; varieties of idiotic and obnoxious lords and merchants and plotters; mysterious and esoteric priest-types). Annoyingly obvious plot-point progression, completely vague long-term direction.

Plus all the women who matter are beautiful (that's how you can tell they matter?) and not a single character surprised me by being anything other than what they obviously were. Not that any one character could really achieve any depth when it's a fast-moving buffet of character viewpoints, meaning no one has any meaningful motivation except the big powers (who are all hateful) and I didn't care two straws about anyone.

Abandoned at page 196. I probably wouldn't have made it that far, but it was a weekend away and I didn't bring anything else to read. As it was, I still got to the point where I just couldn't handle any more regardless. ( )