The book is well-written. I enjoyed the language, style and images it evokes. Also the sci-fi fantasy mashup was interesting. But this is not executed interestingly enough for my taste, too obvious for one thing.

The things I didn't like and made me deduct several stars from the experience:

First: I hated all the characters but 'Brother Makin'. It didn't pay to remember any of the characters because most of them just died. Many deaths didn't have any real significance. They just happened. For me in a book it is important that there is at least one sympathetic character that gets enough screentime. With the whole book being told from the perspective of the - rather unlikable - prince ...

Second: the complexity of the story. On the one hand there is a level of complexity there, with enough complications to keep the reader entertained. On the other hand the complexity was scattered around too much: the scene changes to often, there are a bunch of short story arcs that are simply connected in a linear way which takes away a lot of the potential complexity. The story is missing the smooth "grand arc" that I am always looking for. The reader is just being jumped from scene to scene. Before anything becomes significant and has time to capture the reader ... the prince moves on.