Shaman's Crossing is the first book in Robin Hobb's Soldier Son trilogy. Hobb draws here a fantasy world whose world is closer to the 18th or 19th century than to medieval times. Gernia, which sees itself as the standard-bearer of civilization, a generation ago lost its naval superiority and, with it, all of its coastal provinces. In response, the old knighthood (the Cavalla) became an elite cavalry and rose to prominence in battles against the barbaric plainsmen with their tribal ways and primitive magic. Gernia, besides standing as the bulwark of technology against magic, is a rigidly structured society in which familial roles are proscribed, at least for nobles: the first son is the heir, the second is a soldier, the third a priest, the fourth a poet or artist. 
 Shaman's Crossing (and the subsequent Soldier Son novels) are the first-person accounts of Nevare Burvelle, the second son of a newly-elevated noble who was himself a second son but was raised to Lordship by the King in recognition of outstanding service (and, we come to find, as a shrewd political move to shore up support for the monarchy). This novel follows Nevare through his childhood and the better part of his first year at the prestigious King's Cavalla Academy. 
 Now that the Plainsmen have been defeated and largely marginalized or co-opted into the Gernian way of life, a forest-dwelling people known as the Specks are the next impediment to the expansion of Gernian civilization. In the background of the main plotline is the war between the Gernians and the Specks, though the Gernians don't quite know they're at war, because the Specks are fighting it with a plague they inflict upon the invaders. Nevare himself is drawn into the heart of the conflict, though I don't want to give away too much of the plot. Nonetheless, it's interesting to see the conflict between the scientific, technological, hierarchical Gernians and the tribal, hunter-gatherer, magical Specks. Equally, it's interesting to see--over the course of this novel and the second one--Nevare's growing understanding of the way that his own culture conditions and blinds him: even though he remains loyal, he starts to become more aware of the way he's been shaped by forces outside himself. Again, I hesitate to say too much. 
 I found Hobb's first three trilogies--The Farseer Trilogy, The Liveship Traders, and The Tawny Man--to be excellent, and she continues to impress here. Her world-building is particularly impressive as she finally moves to a new world in the Soldier Son Trilogy, and the plotting in each book is good, but it's the characters who stand at the heart of her writing. She's an excellent writer in the prime of her career.