I have heard heaps about Robin Hobb online, and when I found this first novel at my local library I reserved it immediately! While I think that you can tell that she is still finding her feet in this novel and there were a few off notes (such as Chade and Fitz's early and weird relationship dynamic, some pacing issues and a bit of a rushed climax), the world is wonderful and I will definitely be continuing with it to see what happens. 
 While at this stage in a series I would normally expect the characters to have hooked me, here it is the world building. The magic system, the land, its history and the court intrigue all worked really well for me, and they are what I'm hanging out for in the next book. Fitz is a great character as well, yes, but his loneliness in this novel permeated through to the characterisation of everyone else, who all felt very distant as a result. I'm not sure if this was intentional on behalf of Hobb as a way to isolate the reader with the main character, and while it was an interesting technique, it did leave this as a plot-driven novel as opposed to something a bit more meaty and complex. Also, all the cool characters were thrown in at the end and barely there! No! Take me back to the Mountains! 
 The world aside, the highlight of this book for me was the magic systems, in particular the Wit and the unique insight we got into all the animals in this story. (Basically: puppies!!!) I'll look forward to further explanation of those magic systems in later books, as it is still all very mysterious here. 
 Overall, a great opening novel for Hobb's multiple series in this world, but you can definitely tell that this is an introductory novel. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I certainly hope it keeps building on the premise from here.