Now read on! This is a good epic tome to wallow in, although like most literary doorstops it could also stand some editing to shake out that tendency to repetition. The glossary of all those complex names at the back comes in handy, as does the map. Once the book gets going, after a slow start, it does tend to hold on. Based more than a little on Scottish warring clans it has the same tendency to make for exciting reading, once the action digs in and everybody has been introduced. Magic comes in the form of the hated Kyrinin, the "woodwights" who read like a cross between Native American tribes and elves. Hints at a larger story for the following two books bode well, and we are presumably going to meet the other two races that inhabit this well-delineated world. I’ve read better epic fantasy but not recently, so this is bound to be a popular new series by this brand-new author.