It was cool. A refreshing change to see everyday characters caught up in bigger events. Myla, a former sword-monk in training; Seth, a former novice driven out of the priesthood; Fings, Seth's friend, land amid political intrigue. After being invited to join a heist by a man they call the Murderous Bastard, they find themselves fighting for their lives. Instead of a reward, they discover a conspiracy involving the recent assassination of the emperor and somehow get the Moonsteel Crown into their hands. The thing is all contenders to the throne want the crown. Some will do lethal things to get it.

While the pacing could be better, I liked the characters enough to get through slower parts of the book for them. A fun read.

A fantasy novel of the traditional swords and sorcery type. The world-building is pushed early and often, making the plot seem secondary to all of the information readers need to take in at the very beginning to understand the novel's politics, factions, religions, industries, classes, and so on; it would have made for a better and less fraught read if this had been introduced more gradually and naturally. The plot is fine, I suppose, but neither it nor the characters are particularly compelling. Everyone's got secrets, everyone's hiding from someone, everyone's got great skills at something. It was more like reading about somebody's D&D campaign than a novel.