The Deckled Edge

Decent, but I wasn't blown away. The best part of the book was some strong characterization. Not every character got this, but most of them did. When the book was focused on this and not the bigger picture, I quite enjoyed it.

Despite the good stuff, I had some major reservations with some aspects of the world-building. First, I couldn't figure out exactly why the reeves were supposed to be so important, and so when things start to go wrong for them right off the bat, it didn't make any sense why it was a problem. The source of their authority is supposedly the Guardians, but even by the end of book we still don't know enough.

In particular however, I had a hard time believing the "rot/corruption" had spread over the Hundred for over twenty years, twenty years, and still no one has much of a frigging clue even when two armies suddenly show up out of nowhere. Are there no foot or horse messengers? (Finally mentioned towards the end.) Why does no one speak up when they have the chance? Is no one playing both sides against the middle? I think the real issue here is that it felt like these things were skipped over merely for the sake of the plot to create a false sense of drama.

It may not sound like I liked the book at all when I did. It's just hard to explain when there's a lot that doesn't make sense. A lot of people probably won't have the problems I did, but personally I can't give the book more than three stars. I will probably finish the trilogy since I already have the sequels. I won't put a high priority on it though.