Sad to say that this was a DNF book.

I was immediately drawn in by the GORGEOUS cover (I mean, it's beautiful) and the author's reputation. But I felt the author overwhelmed me in the world-building where I felt horribly lost the entire time. This of course bogged down the pacing and my attention in wanting to continue on with the story. This just wasn't the right story for my preferences.

This book really feels like a return to classic Guy Gavriel Kay novels, and I couldn't be happier!

I've given up on trying to finish this book. I have picked it up, started reading, and then set it back down at least six times now. I thought if I got the audio book I could press on and make more progress than the 25% mark. Nope, listening to it only made the experience worse. There are proportion problems from the very beginning, and they don't get better as the book progresses.
The author is taking too many liberties with his fantasy reader base. Fantasy as a genre is one where readers are known to tolerate long bouts of exposition narrative to allow the author time to construct their fictitous world and culture. However, in my opinion, this book is death by exposition narrative. There's very little tying the reader to the characters. Each chapter, including the very first one, contain several pages of material that reads only slightly better than a historical textbook. There's an awful lot of telling and very-very little showing or action to enjoy. My lack of character investment combined with the never ending narrative, made this book too boring to finish.

Unfortunately this was a DNF
I picked it because I had heard wonders about this author and the worlds he creates. How they are inspired feature fictional analogs of real places, conflicts and intrigues. However I guess the world got too big and complicated for me. I’m a very fast reader and it took me about a week to read 20% of the book. Way too much detail in the worldbuilding often and information what is not relevant. At least not at that moment. The flow and pace was very inconsistent.