There was a wealth of characters (a lot more than I expected from the summary) within the book and quite a bit of development. We start of course with the heroine, Liyana. She certainly had her faults (throughout the first half of the novel she was constantly complaining about how long everything was taking and how the other vessels were a burdern that would slow them down) but overall she was a strong female lead. She was resourceful, clever and easy to relate to. It was interesting to see her change from a girl who had given up her life, ready to sacrifice her body for her people to wanting to stay and live, make her own choices. 
 Then we have Korbyn. He was the Trickster God and honestly? The only God I liked in the novel. The rest of them came across as high and mighty/completely full of themselves, rude and awful. Definitely worth worshiping. Anyway I felt he really kept this book together. He was amusing, mysterious, mischevious, everything I would have expected in a trickster god. His story was also heart-wrenching and I would have loved to read more about it. 
 I suppose next is the Emperor Jarlath (I actually had to go back and look up his name because he left no impression on me). Jarlath was completely flat. I felt nothing for him at all, no sympathy, no anger, just...nothing. 
 What is with author's obsessions with love triangles? I'm sick of them and I hate them on principle. Yet they are popping up everywhere now as if having another person in there that never stood a chance is vital to the story. I blame Twilight. Especially within this novel, it was incredibly poorly done. Liyana never came off as caring about Jarlath at all, even once they meet over halfway through the book then suddenly in one chapter wham/bam/she suddenly cares about him? 
 Of course there were the other vessels. Pia, Raan and Fennik. I felt that Raan was the most interesting. She had a strong character and presented the side of the vessel that the others didn't want to look at. She wanted to survive and not be killed so a god could inhabit her body. I really felt for Raan and yet another reason the resolution was angering.