this was pitched to me as a song of ice and fire with lesbians. it absolutely wasn't. the worldbuilding is decent, and some characters do have personalities. having read - and loved - asoiaf, i expected to be absolutely immersed in a diverse and fascinating fantasy world, with all the politics and intrigue one would expect. not to mention a huge and diverse cast of characters whose stories occasionally intersect. i was really disappointed. this book tries hard, and the world would be very interesting if fleshed out more, but by the end i was not just increasingly disappointed with the lack of development but in some regards the active *devolution* of the concepts so beautifully presented in the first third or so of the book. it had a lot of potential and lived up to none of them for me. but, i gotta give it 2 stars for a really good start. i was really hooked while it lasted.