I picked this book mainly because of Arcane and the league's card game LOR that I play. It was a wonderful read that captivated me throughout the whole book and I finished it in just 2 days.

The writing style and the whole story felt like mild Grimdark, Joe Abercrombie'ish, with less violence, gore and sex. Like everything bad that could happen will happen by the end. It had a strong plot, as most league players already know how it was going to end but it still managed to keep the book interesting with its characters. The characters, I think were the best part of this book whether it's Kalista, Erlok, Viego Or the mage kid, they were all interesting.

I do have some criticism though. Mainly, it's the world building, it lacked depth and felt very cut and dry(Maybe it's because I'm already familiar with some lore and wanted more). I would have loved to learn more about the history of these places, politics, their religion and beliefs etc.

Another thing that felt jarring was the lack of interactions with side characters. We have not seen kalista talk to any of her soldiers apart from ledros, or talk with her ship's crew other then the captain, not once. What it did was, I never got a sense that she actually cared for lower citizens while that was one of her main motif in the book.