The Throne of the Five Winds

THRONE OF THE FIVE WINDS was an enjoyable tale. Lot's of court intrigue and character depth. Probably the thing that appealed to me most was the depth to the world building. There has obviously been a great deal of thought given to this world and how it works. The character depth goes a long way toward making the world feel real and authentic. These characters have lived here. They know the world. It feels very natural and that's something I appreciated greatly.

There is also some amazing prose in this book. There were moments when I was completely engaged by the beautiful prose which is quite flowery at times, but--to me anyway--never strays into that overly descriptive area. The prose combines with an intricate plot to really give us something that has a great deal of depth and realness to it. I enjoyed those aspects quite a bit and can definitely recommend this to fans of political drama and intricate plot and world building.

On the negative side, the novel does move very, very slowly, especially for the first half to two-thirds. There is a lot of setup for this intricate plot. This means that there are a lot of names to keep straight, and actions that characters take that may not have a payoff until much later. I imagine the series as a whole will rely on some of these early and intricate character choices. On the whole, that's a lot to keep track of, and I would have liked for the novel to have moved a little bit more quickly. I generally enjoy big epics where there is a lot of setup, but for some reason the setup here didn't grip me.

This is a book that some are going to adore and others are going to struggle with. I can definitely see the appeal, and I may continue with the series, but it didn't entirely hit for me.