I always appreciate when authors take a "show, don't tell" approach, but the result in this case is a scattershot of characters and groups of people without any clear sense of motivation. This is a story where, as the saying goes, stuff just happens. In fiction with particularly beautiful use of the language that can be fine, but that isn't found here. The characters too often speak in cliches. Many of those characters are somewhat stock in nature - the evil empress, the kindly old monk, the handsome young doctor, etc.

There is some compelling stuff here about gender and a mildly interesting system of magic called "slack," but I don't think I'll check out the remaining three books in the series.