Engrossing. There's a lyrical style at work here, and it really drew me in and it has me eager to find out and learn more - about the main character, about the world, about the people around him... About story arcs that have been begun here but clearly not concluded. There's romance and friendship and vengeance and antagonism, and it's not bogged down and... heavy in the only word I can think of that's descriptive enough. Some epic fantasy seems to get dragged down, and I find it difficult to get through. This is about the opposite - the kind of book where you read for almost two hours and barely notice the time passing. I'm looking forward to the second one!