Although I prefer the story of Priory over Fallen Night, I really enjoyed all of the depictions of Iceland/Norway amongst the Hrothi (the entire region is finally open to us for storytelling) and hope it see more of its people and characters. Really felt for the aro/ace queen, the lesbian moms, the romance between Wulf and <redacted> - all a lot of fun

I felt the plot was slow to start which an interested reader should not hold as a bad thing, the book starts out introducing all the political concepts and characters and kingdoms that this Epic will be covering, one in each cardinal direction of the world. It's all a bit much to start with! But once you are familiar with each of those the storytelling's pace definitely picks up to a medium simmer until the climax. 

The epilogue is nice and ties everything up, and audio book enjoyers will also have an hour long interview with the author to look forward to.

I think my biggest downside was I already knew what things had to happen and be in place for Priory to happen - so my biggest problem is that I knew where a prequel would lead to  - and was just waiting to see it arrive. There wasn't a ton of surprise in the story for me, but it was told masterfully so props to S.S. who was made gay by the orange tree (listen to the interview!)

I WILL say, even though the first book is my favorite, this is still a delightful piece of grand fiction told across years and many viewpoints. It has magic, intrigue, it has gay, there's plenty of distrust and romance to go around, it has a ton of queer representation that is just psrt of the world and isn't soapboxy or trying to make a point. It's just a delightful read. But why didn't those moms take the food? Why.