what an ambitious start to a series! i have to applaud lyons for her ability to toss nearly every fantasy trope imaginable into the mix and somehow miraculously end up with something that doesn’t feel Far Too Excessive. she clearly has an excellent grasp of the story she wants to tell, and she knows how and when to reveal pieces of it to the reader. i’m also absolutely enamored with the structure —a story told through two alternating perspectives, starting at different points in the timeline, within a story within a document, with footnotes. i’ve seen other reviews call it unnecessary and distracting but i found it to be such a fun, unique, and effective way to tell this story.

i really liked a lot of the characters but i do wish i got to know some of them better…which is an admittedly unfair criticism because there’s four more whole books where i’m sure my wishes will be granted. so i guess this is more of a me-struggling-with-series issue rather than an issue with the book itself, since it did a good job intriguing me enough to continue onto the second book.

the one actual criticism i have is that a lot of the peoples that appear throughout the story are described in very simplistic ways that i can’t help but side-eye. that said, given that the story is clearly focused in part on imperialism, i’m willing to give lyons the benefit of the doubt and assume that this was done with the intention of getting challenged later in the series. for now though, i have to question the need for it.