This was so good. Like I know, I'm showing up way late to the party. Everyone already knows Robin Hobb is good. But like, it is just so good. Her writing style is fantastic. It's so easy to read and so smooth and compelling. It takes skillful writing to be completely unobtrusive and hers is fantastic.

I really enjoyed the characters. They were all really well developed and such interesting people, both good and bad. I really liked the overall story. I loved the twists and the turns and the growth of the characters along the way.

I loved the politics in this, but I do wish it had been more developed. There was so much going on and it felt like we only scratched the surface of it. The same with the magic systems. I'm really hoping these are things we get into a lot more in the rest of the trilogy because there's so much room to explore.

There wasn't tons I struggled with here. I'm not a fan of animal death so that was not fun. I also found parts of it kind of generic. I'm not the biggest fantasy reader so it might be that it feels generic because so many people have taken inspiration from her books in the last thirty years, but there were many times I was reading and feeling tired of seeing the same tropes again and again.

I will definitely continue on with the series. I already have the rest of the books out from the library and man are they long. But I believe 2024 will be the year of Robin Hobb for me. Highly recommend, obviously.