There's nothing to be said about this that others haven't said better, but I want to add by 2 cents anyway.

Yes, this book is fantastic and absolutely worth the hype. While it is basically a world building textbook, I think the characters and their dynamic relationships take the cake as the best part of the story. I loved how all of the characters were well fleshed out and felt extremely real and complex. For just about all of them, there was at least one point during the book where you wanted to shake them by the shoulders and ask them what the hell they are thinking, and one point where you want to hold them and reassure them.

I thought there was great representation for the most part here, but I was a bit bummed to see that the only gay male characters in the book were either dead or weak/bad. I don't hold this against the author because I do indeed believe that all queer characters should have the freedom to be evil (I love it actually!), I just would have liked to see a bit more gay male representation across different character types. But despite that, without including spoilers, the most emotional scene in the book for me was the final scene with the gay male character, I really treasure that moment.

As others have noted, it's certainly not without its flaws. The overarching narrative gets lost in the world building and the jumpy POV. The story was simultaneously repetitive with many characters getting the same information from different sources, and confusing because you still aren't sure how each of the characters are coming to the conclusions that they are coming to with this information.

I also agree that the main climax of the book was shockingly short; even expecting it to be short I was still surprised with how few pages were devoted to it. However something that I don't think others mention enough is the very well paced action scenes peppered throughout the book. Yes, the climax was short, but that's not to say it isn't an action filled book. I found the several action scenes to be my favorite parts. I do think this book read as a serialized TV show, but I don't think that worked against it in any way.

In conclusion, this should be added to the fantasy canon of must reads, and I'm really looking forward to the prequel coming out in a few months.