3 to 3.5 stars for me. I knew going in that general response to this book is to either love it or hate it. I fall in-between. I enjoyed the epic scope and the writing in this tale of a holy crusade in an old world on the verge of an Apocalypse. I did not enjoy the depiction of female characters who are pretty much walking orifices as far as their significance goes. There's only three women of note: a whore, a concubine and the mother of the Emperor with incestuous tendencies.

I like the Mandate - Consult conflict but not enough to love the book. For that it made me too uncomfortable too often. However I will likely continue reading the series.