This is the first novel by Chima that I've read, but it's been a pretty impressive introduction to her works. A few parts did drag a bit and could have used more editing, but I was able to skim through them quickly myself. Overall, this is surprisingly one of the best fantasy YA novels I've read, although I have to admit that I've been very reluctant to even give them a chance, since they turn out to be terrible more often than not and my time's been extra precious to me recently. But even with YA novels in general not setting the bar high, Chima deserves some accolades for her characterization. 
 I'm writing this after also reading the 2nd book, Shadowcaster, so this is kind of a response to both novels. As usual, this is going to be rambling and not particularly organized, but this is kind of how I just process books and isn't really intended as a review for others to read. 
 Let me start by confessing that I've been extra sick of the wannabe "strong heroine" archetype recently, because I feel like 9 out of 10 of the series marketed as those with strong, powerful women turn out to have extremely disappointing characters. I mean, it's true that creating a truly strong, nuanced female character is more difficult than people think, and hardly just a matter of having a teen protagonist with some special power and everyone telling her she's awesome and strong, despite how the majority of her actions in the book suggest quite the opposite. To be perfectly blunt, it doesn't take much to turn Wonder Woman into a joke. So in that sense, it's not surprising that so many of the heroines turn out to be such eye-rolling duds, with many cases of authors just trying to lay it on too thick. 
 A variation of this issue with wannabe strong heroines is the teenage leader (princess, queen, commoner-raised-to-ruling-class, whatever) supposedly being responsible for the lives of many, yet acting utterly immature. This is a pretty big problem in YA literature in general: authors try to explore all these dark, epic storylines and themes of say, class oppression, slavery, war, the loss of thousands of lives, etc. Only the characters read like someone took a 13 year old from 2017 and plopped them into Game of Thrones, rather than a 13 year old character in the GOT world, like Daenerys, Jon, Robb, etc. Huge difference, right? Now, don't get me wrong, one of the reasons why I still enjoy YA so much is because the journey from immaturity to maturity can be a fascinating one and a YA novel is often a bildungsroman practically by definition. I also get that a book written about a teenager and for teenagers will and probably should have a certain amount of teenage immaturity. I just don't think heavy adult themes mixes very well with immature teenage characters - either make your characters more realistic given the world they're in, or stop trying to go for these epic themes. 
 Anyway, so I fell a bit under the charm of Chima's writing mainly because of her characterizations, despite the plot pacing issues. (You could see what was going to happen at least 5 chapters before it actually did, so it makes reading those chapters feel very pointless and I constantly wanted to skip ahead to when characters would finally meet.) I mentioned Daenerys, right? Well, with Jenna from Flamecaster, it's pretty hard not to draw that connection. I wanted to hate Jenna as soon as I figured out where the book was going, which happened as soon as it was made clear she never got burned by touching really got stuff. Gee, where have we seen that before? Also, our introduction to her and her tragic loss of her friend gave me some serious Hunger Games-esque vibes, to the point where I was laughing at this Delphi/District 12 mining thing. I expected to hate Jenna, but despite everything, I ended up loving her character, to the point that I was actually disappointed when I started on Shadowcaster and realized that the book was going to be about Lyss. 
 Ok, so speaking of strong female characters - I can't express how much I admire how Chima characterized Lyss. She reminds me a bit of Kelsey from The Queen of the Tearling trilogy, but IMO, better. I'm glad that Chima didn't resort to making her an all around fantastic fighter, leader, politician, and beautiful/popular on top of it, the way other YA novels tend to do. Even Kelsey, in the Tearling trilogy, starts getting a magical makeover halfway through the series and goes from being slightly overweight and plain to becoming magically enhanced, but Chima doesn't backtrack on Lyss. A lot of times, I want to tell YA authors that it's OKAY to have a character that doesn't have it all. In a way, that's one of the most disappointing things about Wonder Woman - that she's practically a Mary Sue in how she's stunningly gorgeous AND a badass fighter AND still super feminine AND has such a sense of ethics and duty AND a good heart AND...you get the point. 
 It's okay to have someone who's actually fighting in a war is not going to clean up to be super feminine or somehow be muscular (the kind of muscular a woman might get from killing people, not women getting nicely toned at the gym) but still look perfectly good in a dress. It makes a lot of sense that someone who grew up fighting in harsh conditions, in a soldier's life basically, would not necessarily be adept at diplomacy and politics. It's also refreshingly relatable to read about a heroine who feels awkward and socially inept, especially when the author makes it clear it's not another one of those things where she just thinks of herself like that but is secretly beautiful to everyone around her. 
 Plus, while the reluctant princess/leader thing has been popular in YA (whole books have been written about princesses running away from their duties cuz, you know, what do you mean they have to marry someone for a political alliance!), you never get the sense that Lyss is one to shirk duty, no matter how unsuited she feels she is for it. Here is a character who I can truly believe leads war efforts despite being 15-16 years old. In short, it's a teenage character who has adult responsibilities and who actually ACTS like an adult because of it. What a surprising concept! I'd almost thought this was impossible to find in YA fantasy these days.