This is the first in a trilogy and sets up the story for what I hope is an awesome journey. There are quite a few characters and at first it felt like an information dump, but it made sense by the end. The author had a tough challenge of creating a world based on history, adding magic, and a large group of main characters. There was a good enough amount of time spent on each character to learn their perspective, history, and essentially the reasoning behind their actions for the rest of the story. About 60% in the book it did slow down quite a bit for me, because it felt like the story was over. The author manages a twist and pulls you back in. By the end of the book, I wished that the 2nd in the trilogy was already published because I would have started reading it the same night. I can't wait to see what comes next!