This really reminded me of a Song of Ice and Fire, as it is a really broad, sweeping narrative about all these different states rising up, having a king declared, then that king being overthrown, etc. So far, so good, right? But that's about as good as it gets. I didn't connect with any of the characters, and for the first half of the book I was quite bored, then the second half picked up a bit, which raised my rating from two to three stars. 
 Maybe I wouldn't have been so disappointed if I hadn't expected such great things from all the reviews I had read...meh