It's hard for me to give this three stars, because two of my favorite authors ever (Patrick Rothfuss and Robin Hobb) both gave it five. 
 But while I agree that the book was suspenseful and an undeniably quick read, it didn't do anything for me. 
 Mostly it was because the characters and world were flat, flat, flat. I had expected Yarvi to have depth and complexity given his heritage and his disability, but despite spending hundreds of pages with him, we never get to learn more than the short list of character traits obvious from the beginning: he's a scholar, not a thinker. He's spent lots of time hiding in the shadows. No one wants a cripple as king. 
 That was all. 
 While he does harden and learn over the course of the book, he--and the rest of the characters--never grew depth. All we know of his closest friends is that one of them is kind, used to be a baker, and wants to return to a sweet-tasting well he once knew; another is a very good navigator who likes Yarvi; and another is always sour and grouchy. Nothing more. One of my favorite parts about reading is getting to know the characters, seeing their moments of honor and of shame, and discovering the disparate pieces that somehow fit together to become a true person. 
 This book had none of that. 
 The world felt lacking as well. I actually liked the fact that magic did not play a larger role, but the entire kingdom seemed nothing more than a stage set. Cities were distinguished by the number of buildings, the presence or lack of snow, and their direction on a map. None of them came to life in any way. 
 Furthermore, the plot, quick-moving as it was, never moved beyond a connect-the-dots exercise racing towards the finish. Yarvi swore an oath, and I knew from the start he would fulfill it. As soon as he was taken aboard the slave ship, I knew he would somehow escape. *spoiler alert* And Shadikshirram, also a cardboard character, could never kill him, because she was too insignificant in the grand scheme of the world. 
 In saying that, I did enjoy the end, because it managed to surprise me for the first time. The big twist was fitting in a way that justified the circular, repetitive nature of the story, and Yarvi's ending was unconventional in a good way. 
 But I just couldn't love this book. In the end, the entire thing was insubstantial and somewhat pointless.