I wanted this to be the brilliant start of a great new fantasy trilogy. It started out so well: an inventive setting, a mysterious and fascinating problem, a morally complex protagonist who doesn't fall into the megagrimdark "gritty" stereotype so popular in adult fantasy right now...

Unfortunately, the story falls apart in the end; the cause of the problem is too pat, the solution too simple. This feels like a plot planned to extend over 3 books that was forced to be compressed into one, which is a shame.