What got me to read this book was another reviewer saying that the characters were interesting but the story was generic (I'm paraphrasing). I was willing to try it anyways, I don't regret it. But I do have a couple problems with the book.
From the start, we're introduced to the city of Sacral, which disappeared a thousand years ago due to magic, and has just recently returned. And very little has changed. It's even mentioned that traders come from across the lands and no one is much interested in their wares. Imagine what Earth was like a thousand years ago. The Americas were mostly untouched by the Europeans. Guns hadn't been invented, nor computers or electronics. Public works, philosophy, science. A lot has happened in a thousand years and this bugged me for most of the book. But I admit it's a fantasy conceit and much more famous authors have gotten away with worse.
The other thing was we do get these very interesting, well developed characters. One is fairly generic but the others are pretty neat and the way they deal with things and adapt to the obstacles and troubles the plot puts in their path is really engaging. But they hardly ever meet. Between the major characters there's about three pages of them meeting (on, I think, about five separate instances). Again, this is (has been) a popular trope in fantasy, the really big story, so what can I really say about it other than it happens and I found it a little weird, but not necessarily bad.
Those two things I found off. But I really can't say anything bad about the book. It's a good length. It tells a series of stories that are more interconnected by the world they take place in and in some cases a series of events that happened over a thousand years ago. It's well written, it has neat ideas, I'd really like to see more of it and quite looking forward to the next book (which, judging by the brief glimpse at the end of this one, will introduce new characters). If you're unused to fantasy, and don't like the things I've mentioned or are particularly critical, I'd suggest avoiding it. But in the end it's a good book.
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