Well, Jalan did grow on me in this novel... much more so than previously. But he's still a spoiled prick that I don't find interesting at all. If it wasn't for the 2 other characters, I'd have given up much earlier. Additionally, what I loved about the Broken Empire series was the ever present "builders" technology that this novel almost completely lacks. Save for a flashback to the Red Queen, there's is next to nothing... in fact it is much more centered on magic than builder tech that they think is magic. I found this very disappointing. It's well written and a good story, but really makes me sad.