Fans of George R R Martin, rejoice; if plotting and court intrigue is your bag, then this book is right up your dark alley. If you prefer your fantasy to have a bit more derring-do about it, then you might not enjoy it quite so much. The twin influences on modern fantasy seem to be Tolkein and Herbert's Dune; right now the latter seems to be in ascendance. Personally, I prefer my fiction to be a harmonious mixture of the two and Robert Jordan manages this well enough--albeit long-windedly--and so did Fallon in her Demon Child Trilogy (also reviewed on this site).

There are good things in here to enjoy for all, however, and I especially enjoyed the idea of a fantasy with not only no magic, but where the religion itself is based on trickery. A knowledge of archaeology and astronomy might save the day for the good guys (in book three, I imagine) and all the panoply of deity worship and arcane ritual so beloved of this genre is presumably going to be revealed to be rather like an evil version of The Great Oz behind his shabby curtain. Plots and plans, an underground resistance movement, Machiavellian ploys to gain power over people, tortures and fanaticism make up the bulk of this tale which is something of a page-turner, lack of action notwithstanding. But stick with this one - it might be going somewhere rather interesting.