My interest is piqued. I tend to not often read scifi or epics because I don't always find them to be relevant to the ideas that interest me. One series I loved was the Dune series, with its strong women characters, it's political intrigue and corollaries to modern life (spice=oil, for example). This series offers more character depth than I expected, and the plot is fast moving with twists and turns, but less philosophical meat like Dune had. That being said, I started to read it due to the many people who I respect loving and raving about it. So far, I am glad I did.

On to book 2.