I read this book with the The Sword and Laser book club and I'm glad I did. This book seems to be popular with fantasy fans and I can see why. 
 I really thought the character development in this book was excellent to the point that I loved all the characters including the bad guys. Although I probably shouldn't use the term bad guys because there aren't really any good guys, all the characters are just different shades of gray. The protagonists are antagonists? or the antagonists are protagonists? I don't know, it's complicated. 
 The plot was well laid out to the point that I got the feeling Scott Lynch put a lot of time, energy and a hell of a lot of planning into this novel. I was also under the impression that this book was written from the ending to the beginning, but that's just a guess. 
 The characters were good, the plot was well written so that leaves the backdrop, which in terms of fantasy novels I found to be completely original. The author left the usual medieval England behind for what seemed to be a Baroque era Venice. Sprinkle in a unique magic system, some Italian style mafia and government, and it all turns out to be a great background for a fantasy novel. 
 This novel might not be for everyone, the content could be considered morally ambiguous to some, but all in all I thought it was great. If you liked that movie The Sting with Robert Redford and Paul Newman then I would highly recommend this book. Five White Iron Crowns out of five. 
 Update: Apparently I was wrong, according to the author it wasn't written from the ending to the beginning.