I loved this book. It was immersive and detailed, had sympathetic characters, competent women (even if the main character is male) and intricate societies. I always love descriptions of loyalty, and this book delivered. Reading about the bonds Inda forms with those around him and his own loyalty to others was deeply satisfying to me. ( )

I found this series so engrossing that I had to limit myself to times where I wouldn't miss deadlines while reading it. ( )

"Action novel. Culture is laid on a bit thick (hard to keep up with names, places, etc.), but wonderful writing." ( )

Fairly standard pseudo-medieval-European fantasy story shape, sub-genre coming of age, but with enough point-of-difference in the thoughtful examination of gender roles to feel fairly fresh. I could do without the "Vikings slipped into another world through a crack in time" origin story (especially since some of the stuff around the maintenance of the Waste Spell etc makes me head-canon that they're all NPCs in a super-complex virtual reality...) but that's mostly ignorable.

The way the omniscient darts from person to person was a bit off-putting at first but I quickly got used to it and (aside from supporting the epic feel) it was fantastic at rounding out characters who'd otherwise get little air-time. Even the villains are... almost sympathetic; in several cases it feels like you could actually solve many problems if only it were possible to sit them down with a therapist to work through some of their issues/relationships. ( )

I'm giving Inda five stars despite a few minor complaints, simply because the ending made me well up. I'll definitely continue with this series. There's a total of four books.

Let's get the minor complaints out of the way first.

Most characters have an official name and a nickname plus a honorific. The honorific is different depending on which language the characters use, which means there's at least four different ways a character can be referred to. It took me a long time to be able to keep everyone straight in my head, and I spent a lot of time flicking back and forth to verify I'm indeed thinking of the right character.

The other complaint is a bit more peculiar. Smith uses an omniscient narrator to tell the story and sometimes switches POV character in the middle of a paragraph. There are chapters where the POV shifts through several characters on a single page. Basically this is a novel for people who are fully awake and are paying attention.

The world building is ambitious, detailed and intricate. The prose takes a while to get used to, but once you get into the book it flows beautifully. I really enjoyed Smith's narration throughout the book.

The characters are diverse, well developed, and I especially enjoyed the depiction of different sexualities. Plus: realistic women! The first book, Inda, is basically a coming of age story. It has everything: betrayal, a military academy, pirates and magic.

There's a steep learning curve, but it's already worth it by the end of the first book.

I recommend everyone who loves fantasy to give this a try. ( )