This book deserves all the hype it's gotten and more. This needs to become as big as Game of Thrones and Sarah J. Maas and all of the other popular fantasy series. This is without a doubt one of the best fantasy books I have ever read and I can't wait for the rest of the series. (I just realized the second part is already out and I NEED IT)

The author covered the foundations of a good fantasy book so well. The worldbuilding was unique and intricate, yet he resisted the urge to infodump everything about his well-constructed world immediately. There are so many things I still don't know and understand about the world of the book, and I'm so happy about that. I just know he's going to go even deeper into it in the next books and it's going to be fantastic.

The Omehi - the main group in the book - have a caste system that is not there just to prop up the main character, Tau, and emphasize how exceptional he is. I loved that he actually wasn't exceptional at all, and he fought tooth and nail for every step he managed to take in the story, just to be forced one step back.

The powers and magic of the world have their limits, which keeps the story consistent. There are some lines that the main character cannot break no matter how hard he tries. This means that there are no sudden bursts of unexpected power to save him from an impossible situation. He gets himself into these situations and is saved unexpectedly, yes, but these occurences make sense. The story isn't moved forward by happy coincidences - when there are coincidences they, again, make sense. 

This wasn't a perfect book. The pacing got slow during Tau's military training - basically he was just doing the same thing over and over again -, but then again the fight scenes were always great. Even if the author overuses "swords whirling". 

This isn't exactly criticism, but in general Tau is so damn stupid and does the stupidest thing all the time and stresses me out and I love him. It can be frustrating though.

The training also didn't make sense to me. It had this Fourth Wing (?) type of system where the goal seems to be to kill as many initiates as possible. The Omehi's problem is an enemy that has overpowering numbers, and yet they just casually break each other's bones and even kill each other. I guess it makes sense since the Nobles don't give a fuck about the Lessers, but it just didn't fully make sense.

As a gymrat it bothered me how Tau supposedly reached his superior physical condition and fighting skills by training all day without sleeping or doing anything else. That just doesn't work. You will not develop without rest. This is such a small complaint but it did annoy me every time.

Anyway, I could talk about this book for hours, but I will end here and just say that this book is amazing and you should read it.