I listened to this book as part of a buddy read and the general reception within that group felt mostly negative. And yes this book certainly has some big issues but overall I found the experience to be quite enjoyable.

The main character of this story is a disgraced noble archetype and he is also pretty much drinking all the time. He does make for a frustrating protagonist who comes off as not very smart at all, making dumb decisions etc. and I get how this can feel very off putting in general. But as this book progressed and once you lean into it, I kind of liked how this was used as a storytelling device. 

There is a lot of convenient storytelling and there are definitely some glaring plot holes. But on the other hand as our MC is getting railroaded through this story while he only prevails due to determinism and a big amount of sheer luck, you kind of just have to be entertained as this planless chaotic spectacle unfolds in front of you!

It also helps that at parts this book can also be quite funny. A lot of it comes from the MCs sidekick the 11 year old girl and gutter rat Flea. She is just a delight throughout this book and honestly with her street smarts it feels like she has more to teach our MC than the other way around. Otherwise it was so and so and the character front. Some of the side characters were entertaining but also mainly used to move the plot along and the villains kind of felt like bland mustache twirling caricatures. 

The book tries really hard to be mysterious but honestly it just fails at that. I didn’t find any of the Mysteries to be particularly compelling.

The prose is pretty simple and probably subpar by most standards and it also felt repetitive at times but I didn’t mind it a lot and honestly for a first book of this author it is more than adequate. 

The audiobook experience was very good. The narrator Brenock O’Connor does a fine job. I feel like he is not that great at doing distinct voices but in general his voice feels very fitting to the story and he does a good job conveying emotions. And the distinct voices thing is also not a big issue since the simplicity and straightforwardness of the story make it easy to follow along and just makes it very fitting for the medium.  
I plan to continue with this series once the next audiobook comes out.