It's a good idea to have these two lumped in a single book, seeing as individually they're short by high fantasy standards. Still, this reduced size is probably what makes the story somewhat fall apart at the seams at times, as the author is trying to cover too much action, and too much ground, in too few words, and some similar names and characters that are presented far too briefly certainly don't help.
On the other hand, this is more or less the only complaint I have, as otherwise pretty much all the right elements are there, presented coherently and in a way that makes sense. No complaints about the writing style either, and seeing certain scenes and actions that many others would perhaps focus too much on presented so matter-of-factly is, at this point, refreshing. In addition, at least so far, certain parallels that can be drawn between the story and "reality" seem to send a message that I can agree with. Whether I'll say the same after the next book as well remains to be seen.