Audiobook may be better on the second read An epic fantasy with a sprawling world, lots of characters, mythology, and political intrigue. The larger story is told as we look through the eyes of several characters on their own distinct paths to find acceptance, love, valour, and retribution. Their paths cross and converge as they face the forces of the Sanctum Queen, who seeks the destruction of the world in service to the gods of the void. The reason I rated this as I have was that for the first 60-70% of the book I found myself having to go back to try to figure out what was happening, who was who, and which timeline we were following. I found this impossible to do with the audiobook so I got a copy on kindle. It felt as if I had skipped book one and was dropped into a rich world and that was only briefly and vaguely introduced. While the individual stories and characters were interesting and the story had an interesting grim dark feel, the larger plot line felt rushed and to me, didn’t quite come together. Given the last 30-40% of the book was much easier to digest, I have no doubt some of the problems from this book will be resolved The narrator did a wonderful job, so it’s definitely worth the listen once you have the world figured out. My only qualm with the narration is when we shifted from one character’s story to another mid chapter, there wasn’t an indication that it was happening (e.g. longer pause), which was disorienting. Note: I received a complementary copy of this audiobook.

This was my first experience with this author's work. I thought the worldbuilding was exceptional and lavish. I admired many of the colorful descriptive phrases which flowed throughout the story. My main issue was that the characters weren't distinguishable enough that I knew them as soon as the story jumped from one set of characters to the next as there were several individuals to follow. There were some fascinating fight scenes and some flashes of humor that enhanced my enjoyment of the story. I thought Marcus Freeman's narration was good. I was given a copy of the audiobook. I volunteered, without financial gain, to post this review which reflected my honest opinions regarding this audiobook.