Gave up on this one about 80% of the way through when I realized I wasn't enjoying it and hadn't been for a while. I get uncomfortable pretty fast with books that need to spend a lot of time on reminding you that the characters have suffered! so! much! -- not uncomfortable in a "this is disturbing" way, more in a "what, don't you trust me to sympathize with the characters?" way. 
 Some interesting political maneuvering, and I love the sensual attention paid to the desert itself, but the main characters interested me less and less as the story made it more and more clear that their role was to be poor innocents in tragic circumstances who were constantly manipulated by bad men.