In Abraham's debut novel, he has created an interesting world and magic system.
Here the Andat are a spiritual entity when bounded with a Poet can then use magic.
Saraykeht is a city where the local Andat is used by the city's poet to speed cotton harvests, but this is threatened when a conspiracy develops with a foreign pregnant girl and her unborn baby.
We have several points of view here:
A woman trade advisor who advocates for the girl.
Two students of the poet school, and their lover.
Plots moves a bit slow, but this story I am sure will morph into much more.

Truly impressive. So many novels in genre are less novels than they are the workings out of a plot—but that's not the case here. The characters breathe, and their moral and personal and emotional concerns are at least as vital as the clockwork of cause and effect. This actually made it a bit tricky for me to orient for the first couple chapters (after that phenomenal prologue). I kept waiting for the adventure hook, the mystery prompt, the grand doom foretold, and when one didn't come I felt thrilled in the way you do when lost in familiar woods. Looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

I eventually took a pose accepting all the poses with conveyed meanings scattered throughout the book. It looked kind of, no, exactly like this: the pose I took wasn't subtle; it encompassed my whole being, right foot splayed to the right, big toe lifted skyward, which represented why-in-the-absolute-fock am I reading about these poses, and the toe conveying, okay, whatever; my wrists were somewhat in opposition, one to the front and one to the back like a Walk Like an Egyptian dance frozen in place, meaning the story got good; my neck was scrunched like I was trying to do my business but had eaten too much cheese and needed some fiber, thus encapsulating the storm before the calm; but last, my eyes individually, with much practice I must say, looked to and fro at the same time, representative of my eyes reading the pages quickly regardless of all the above — but the reading itself did not actually occur in that cross-eyed manner, it was strictly for the pose. You'll have to take my word for it, as I did the author's, that all these things do indeed represent what I'm telling you is true.

I love slow, political, character-driven fantasy and this one really nails it. Not quite 5 stars, since I didn't get that emotionally involved until the very end, but there is still so much potential. I think the book really excells in character work and the complexity of interpersonal relationships. It just feels real.

Honestly I felt it took too long to get started, and really didn't hold my attention as well as it should have.

That being said I didn't hate it. Just the pacing was wrong for me, and I really didn't find any characters within it that I really liked. I'm kind of disappointed because I had high hopes for this author, but I think I'll continue with the series and see if it gets better.

Executive Summary: This pretty much seals it, I apparently really enjoy everything Mr. Abraham writes. This series likely won't be for everyone though.

Audio book: The sad truth is I consume far more books in audio these days than in text. The reviews of this series in audio has been pretty mixed towards negative, so I was leary to give it a shot.

I'll say that for me Neil Shah, was an alright narrator. He actually reads really well, and does a variety of voices. Some of them just annoyed me. Especially Seedless.

For the most part though, I didn't find myself distracted by the narration, so while this isn't a series I'd call a must listen, I think most people should find doing it in audio a viable option.

n  Full Reviewn
I've been planning to check out this series for a bit now. After how much I loved Nemesis Games and The Spider's War delayed to next year, this seemed like the perfect time.

Often times, the problem I have with reading an older series after reading an author's later work is the quality may seem lackluster by comparison. While I probably enjoy Dagger & Coin more, I still found this to be quite good.

Since I'm doing this in audio, I struggled badly with the names though. Probably worse than usual. I still really don't know any of the character's names. I wish every audiobook came with a list of character names and their spellings. It would make both my reading and my review writing far easier.

Much like Dagger & Coin, this is pretty much a low fantasy series. There is almost no magic to speak of. One of the characters, Seedless, is a magical construct called an Andat who is a conduit for magic of a practicer who is referred to as a poet. You don't really see much of the magic, and it's not really explained. How exactly the poets are able to do anything isn't clear. It seems to be a struggle of wills with the andat they control.

Mr. Abraham likes focusing on the politics of his fictitious worlds, and this is no different. He has built a world where much of one's emotions and dilogue is actually done through a series of complex hand gestures. It's a society that relies of the power of the poets and condones fratricide among the sons of the rulers as a means of succession.

Young sons are often relegated off to the school that is responsible for cultivating the next generation of poets to save them from being murdered. So you'll never guess who are protagonist it? You guessed it, he's a younger son of one of the city rulers. Go figure.

Overall I found both the world building and the characters to be pretty good/memorable, though less so than his other series. It's going to be hard for me to talk about the characters by name though, since I couldn't tell you what any of them are. I think all the main characters offered depth where no one really felt good or evil. They are just people with desires and faults trying to do what they feel they must for a variety of reasons: values, outside pressures, self interest, fear, etc. I like that sort of characterization.

My favorite character is probably the older 50-something overseer. I wish more SFF novels did this. Abraham seems to have at least one of them in all of his series I've read, and they've all been great. While this one is no Avasarala or even Clara, she is still pretty memorable. Now if only I could tell you her name. :(

The pacing is also a bit slower, especially coming from one of his Expanse books. I don't think it's that much slower than Dagger & Coin.

This pacing, and the general lack of action and fighting may turn some fantasy fans away. If you're looking for military battles, and sword wielding adventurers, you've come to the wrong place.

I however seem to enjoy the more political fantasy novels, so the pacing was never an issue for me. I jumped right into book 2, and will likely finish this whole series pretty quickly.

odio l'editoria, quella italiana la odio da morire, non capisco come possa esserci ancora qualcuno in grado di lavorare alla Mondadori o alla Fanucci (due a caso tra le altre) con tutta la dissenteria che auguro loro ogni volta che vedo ristampe fighe di vecchi libri e per contro il vuoto cosmico nella continuazione delle saghe!

Un intrigo politico/economico che tocca, e cambia, ogni personaggio, un ambientazione semplice e sofisticata e un sistema magico innovativo e.. poetico

dall'autore di Expanse un libro scritto benissimo di cui non leggerò il seguito perchè alla Fanucci sono tutti in bagno

Eh, I liked it but was left dissatisfied at the end of the book. The problem is that this book feels like the first act of a bigger story, and given that it's part of a four volume arc that is probably true, but it just doesn't stand on it's own.

There are a number of characters introduced and followed which is typical for an epic style fantasy, however none of them really stand out as the one I wanted to cheer for. And in the end they are all going separate ways with no victories and many of them uncertain about their future. The ending created a feeling in the reader, or at least in me, that there should immediately be another chapter. But all the reader gets is blank pages and an author bio so immediate frustration was created and the negative emotions filing the reader due to the aimless, ennui filled ending it's not a frustration that said to me "Get the next book", it was a frustration that said "Well, that's stupid".

The reading in this was very slow and that is due to the effort the author took to create and portray the flavor of his world. This book is set in an almost oriental location and colors of clothing, positions of hand and body, and words all combine to present one unified message. It works well to share the world, but also slows down reading as you have to carefully assemble all the components of what is being done and said to get a full message.

If I can get past the uninspiring ending of this story I may read more, or I may just take them all to the local thrift store to offer to a more appreciative reader than I.

Completing a novel, launching it out into the world, must be a daunting thing. It's no surprise that authors often take it easy on themselves the first few times, finding their feet before they launch into the deep end.
Which is to say that most debut novelists do not kick off their epic fantasy tetralogy with a glacially slow, intense but distant, morally complicated multiple-point-of-view novel about an abortion, set in a non-European culture whose oddities make themselves felt in every single exchange of dialogue.

Locus' review of this suggested that, although it was tempting to compare it to the work of George RR Martin (I'd actually say Robin Hobb was a little closer in some ways, in content if maybe not in style), the novel was really something different, something new in the genre. And... that's pretty much right. The plot, the setting, the characterisation all feel quite different from any other epic fantasy I'm aware of, making this a must-read for those (whether jaded old-timers or dismissive outsiders) skeptical of epic fantasy's ability to still break new ground. It is also a solidly-written novel that is engaging and immersive throughout, if not necessarily enthralling.

However, opaque, distant, morally compromised characters largely compelled by circumstances and external forces, slow pacing, complexity (although I could tell you what happened in the novel, I'd struggle to say in one sentence what the actual story was), and a general air of hopelessness and tragedy make it a hard book to actually love - which may explain why a novel that garnered such excitement from vanguard readers and critics alike ten years ago seems to have slipped - understandably but unfortunately - from public awareness. I'm left knowing that I ought to read on - and I will - but in no physical urgency to actually aquire the next installment. That being said, this is of course only the first of four linked novels, and the potential does remain for the series to become more emotionally satisfying now that the groundwork has been lain.

As it is, I'm not going to be recommending this for people looking for a new book to fall in love with. But I will be recommending it to people say they want to see the epic fantasy genre doing something new, as well as to those who particularly enjoy grim, cold, mature (though not particularly violent or horrific) writing.

You can read my more detailed review (or ramblings) over on my blog.

Given how much I've enjoyed James S.A. Corey's The Expanse series, it was not a hard sell to get me to want to try one of the fantasy series of one of the authors who writes those books. I didn't make any real moves to do so, though, until I was helped along when Tor.com's book club offered the first in a series by Daniel Abraham for free. So I downloaded it, and it languished for a while on my ereader while I was busily finishing up reading Hugo nominees.

Note: The rest of this review has been withheld due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.

In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook

Probably like a number of others, I figured I'd give this a spin based on cover praise from GRRM. As well, I seemed to remember that Daniel Abraham wrote the Jonathan Hive parts of the first book in the latest Wild Cards cycle, and I liked those. I can see where there is potential in this series but not much of it is realized in the opening book. Missing is a big bang to really draw you in. The idea of poets taking intangible ideas and crafting them into corporeal existence and that's what magic is, that's neat. The "andats" wanting to turn on their masters, because they prefer nonexistence, also cool.

Reading "took a pose of (whatever)" every page became quickly irritating, however, so much so that it takes away from what enjoyment I did find in the book. Maybe I'm just jealous though - I mean, I hate writing dialog and wish I had an easy way to skip it sometimes. What better way than to remove the necessity of characters using words a significant portion of the time? I don't know what it says about me that I can read about poet magicians without blinking yet I get hung up on a language of elaborate body postures. Maybe it's because the former is clearly magic and the latter makes me think of mimes.

I'll probably get around to finishing this series eventually to see if it gets better, but I'm not in a rush.

This was part of a group read and I liked it best of everybody reading the book. Which is odd because I think I'm the first one to complain when Fantasy or Sci-Fi books don't have any action and move slow. Others thought that of this book but it wasn't that way for me. There's just something about DA's writing style where both the characters and world are so descriptive. The emotions and interactions come off the page in HD where another author trying for the same is a black and white 9' built in the 70's.