I was continually amazed at how such a high quality book could be an author's debut. The specific description he uses to paint the scenery, fill us in on characters' inner experiences, illustrate one of the most fascinating magic/religious systems I've read or seen, and blow my mind with complex characters (including snippets inside the point of view of various gods) made this read an absolute pleasure. Add to that a plot that was so intense I was astonished at how much happened by the 50% mark, and then only got better, throwing twists left and right as if Moses were some kind of magician samurai.

In the first half of the book, you are put into main characters from both sides of a war. I was intrigued by how Moses made me care about both sides, and became immediately pulled into figuring out how he would conclude the potential war. No spoilers here, so I'll just say that I was impressed with Moses going the extra mile to keep me on my toes till the very end.

I commend Moses for such a well-written book. This being his first actually weighed more heavily on my rating being a four (because I am very confident he'll write a better book), but I was thoroughly impressed. I'm still a little shocked at how much Moses opened my eyes to the expanse of one's imagination as seen through his unrelenting style, plot and characterization. I cared about every single person in this book. I was engulfed in the description of every paragraph. And I never knew what was going to happen next.

I know that took a ton of work, Moses. If you can do that again, I'll be there to read it. I read for about 8 hours today to finish this, and it was a treat I won't forget.