"The world is changing. People do not exist to serve their governments or their kings.
Governments exist to serve the people, so the people should have a say in those governments."
The strongest part in Brian's creation is the building of characters. Never in my life have i read such well composed fictional characters. I completely understood every decision they made, every word they said, every action they took, even in minor characters like Ka-poel or Mihali. I do have a problem withe one specific character though. It's something that i not once read in other reviews, and it keeps bothering me. One of the protagonists, Adamat, is considered the finest detective of the country. More than once i read about his detective skills, and i was expecting some Sherlock-Poirot-Batman thing to happen. It didn't happen. The guy was just walking around asking questions, until finally someone gave him answers. No detective skills at all. Yet no other reviewer was bothered by it.
Of particular interest is the fact that many of the smaller plot arcs were very short. Every time a minor problem arises in the story, the resolution comes very soon afterwards, giving you a constant feeling of danger, without actually endangering the characters or the general plot arc. All in all, it was a very good book, but i will wait to finish the whole trilogy before i recommend it to someone.
Update: Just finished the trilogy, totally recommend it!
Update no2: Half a year passed, and i realized i loved it more than i originally thought. You. Should. Read. It.
Ps. I made a terrible mistake and read Mark Lawrence's review before reading the book, so every time i read about a state called Fatrasta i kept imagining fat Rastafarians.