This book is like reading if Joffrey Baratheon had a POV in A Song of Ice and Fire. Jorg is unsympathetic, somewhat sadistic, and thinks everything is a game. He's a huge cliche of a character, with probably the thickest plot armour of any character I have ever read about. He's almost laughable because he tries so hard to be a badass, but he's like 13. It reads like bad fanfiction. This book isn't what everybody told me it was. I was sold a book with a villain as the protagonist, but what I got was an entitled little jerkwad. He's not half as wicked as Joffrey, not as sadistic as Ramsey Bolton, he's just...ok. he reminds me more of Kvothe from the Kingkiller series than anybody else, honestly. He's probably an unreliable narrator with a huge complex and self absorbed. What's more is his merry band drops like flies from page one, and despite the book's apparent attempt to make you care, the only one that has even a little development is Makin, and he mostly exists just to legitimise some of Jorge's bizzare choices.

Why did I give it three stars then? Honestly, because for the first ten-fifteen or so chapters, reading about such an unrepentant little buttmunch was entertaining. I keep drawing comparison to Asoiaf/game of thrones for a reason; this book wants you to put it on the same scale, but it's a watered down version with none of what makes Thrones a classic. It has a somewhat similar setting, the desire to be part of a similar grim dark fantasy, and it's need to justify the protagonist. It just can't hold a candle to other titles in the genre. I read this one before bed and it didn't bother me, in fact it almost helped me sleep because nothing really happens.

Overall it's just...ok. yet another entry in the oversaturated fantasy market that doesn't do enough to set it apart from others. Maybe with a better writer who could actually develop the characters beyond cannon fodder, but alas.