Hardcore epic fantasy. I will say, if you can't handle the darkness of the human soul, this may not be the story for you. As you may have noted, it took me a long time to work my way through this book. I started it a while back and set it aside because I didn't have the stamina for it then. I barely had the stamina for it now. It's a powerfully told tale of antiheroes, warfare, politics, fanaticism, and more. It's taken me a while to parse through it all.

Language-wise, it's a fairly lyrical book, even when telling a tale that veers into the twisted and painful parts of being human. I can handle a lot without getting uncomfortable, but there were scenes that managed to punch through even my jaded surface -- Portoles on the "hot seat" confessional comes to mind. Even scenes like that were told in well-crafted prose.

Almost all of the characters are deeply flawed and unpleasant, yet somehow still likable.

Thank you for the arc, unfortunately I did not finish it, I just wasn't the right audience for this book.

Dark, dreary, about 150 pages too long. Have to admit Zosia is a fantastic character but the plot tries to do too much and adequately shows almost none of it. Also could stand a better editor.

I meant to read and review this and life happened. Though it looks really interesting, I've since read some other work by this author, including some stories set in this world. I really didn't find them all that appealing, so lost fire for reading a longer work.

A Crown for Cold Silver is epic fantasy on a grand scale. And in part that is the problem. The reader is tossed into the middle of a tale and better get swimming mighty fast before he/she is swamped by the multiple characters who each have their own accretion to add to the main story. And if you miss a detail it will come back to blindside you later when that minor event proves to be the leverage that launched the whole edifice. Mind you, Alex Marshall had created a world worth exploring, but be sure to leave yourself enough time to do the tale justice. And, thankfully, there is a sequel out so you do not have to squirm too long before getting another fix