This was not my favorite book. It was difficult to finish, and I haven't said that often about fantasy novels. I am willing to read the first book in a few of Robin Hobbs other series because I hear they are far better, but I won't continue with this one. 
 The world building is good, the character development is good. The story is just slow and plodding. I have a feeling fans of Tad Williams Shadowmarch will really like this. Much more character driven than action, which while is not always a bad thing, I found I just hadn't signed up for this time. 
 I also found some of the characters exhausting. (view spoiler)[ Nevare's passivity. Epiny's flightiness. Caulders endless obnoxiousness. All the adults being so terrible to all the children. The depiction of the Specks in the circus made me uncomfortable, in an I-didnt-want-to-think-this-author-is-racist disappointed kind of way. I guess I'm just impatient with such heavy handedness. I get it, you don't need to bash me over the head with it. (hide spoiler)] 
 If you haven't picked up a Robin Hobb book yet, I'm going to make an educated guess and say don't have this one be the first one.