I have extremely mixed feelings about this one. There's a lot to like. There are plenty of meaningful decisions with genuine consequences and branching paths. I already want to go back and see what happens if you take some of the other options. But oh my god is it long. This book is a fucking brick and it absolutely doesn't need to be. A competent editor could have cut it down considerably and improved it immeasurably. Starting with all the fucking world-building. There are so many countries and kings and events happening far away from the central story and they all vanish from my memory the instant I finish reading about them.

Get an editor, Ben! Someone who'll actually make you cut stuff. For your own good.