1/3 of the way through: very similar tropes/structure to ASOIAF, which isn’t a bad thing, especially since this isn’t a chore to read. Not high fantasy so far, just some dudes with swords and politics and wenches. Enjoyable, but nothing crazy yet (neither was most of S1 of GoT)

Part 1: 8.00

It's rife with conspiracy, good character narratives and development. Again, very similar to the first few seasons of GoT I think, but it's well written enough to not be abjectly derivative – the characters are unique enough that I still don't think I penalize it + this book is older than S1 of GoT

Part II: also an 8

Just a solid book throughout. The pacing is above average, the characters are excellent, and the narrative path between characters is also above average. I'm still lefting thinking "damn this is just like GoT" in the sense of political strife, conspiracy, gritty violence, existence of magic that's treated with skepticism by even the characters within the book – but it's not since this predates the Thrones universe of the TV show, just independently good. And gahdamn if the first several seasons of GoT weren't phenomenal – so I'm excited for this series as well.

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