This is one of those books that has a lot of characters, but that's okay, because they're mostly interesting. Some are occasionally infuriating, particularly the idiotic French* noblewoman who is so full of herself that she won't even have oral sex with a guy who had previously had oral sex with a commoner. Oh, and by the way, there's sex, just so you know. Even a scene involving what is more or less rape, so be advised. There are other characters, though, who I really hope stay alive, so it sort of balances out.

All in all, an interesting start to what looks like an interesting fantasy analogy for World War II.

*French by analogy. If you haven't read it, it might not make as much sense if I wrote "Valmieran". But yes, Valmiera is this world's France. Take a look at the series Wikipedia