First book I've read by this author, it is set in a universe he knows well - though his other series are set many centuries after this one. For the first book, it ended fairly well, but you could also tell it was part of a larger series.

As I am unfamiliar with this author, I struggled a bit with the character names and the non-standard elves (Fhrey). The auhthor mhust have whorn severhal "H" kheys out writing this bhook. The ending has a helpful glossary. I especially appreciated the occasional humor. Battle scenes are well written and thrilling. My favorite part was the several strong female characters

The plot was a little predictable, and most of the male characters were also. This was a minor detraction from what is a solid story and start to a series. I plan to read a few short stories from this timeline (one is located in [b:Unfettered II: New Tales By Masters of Fantasy|31177603|Unfettered II New Tales By Masters of Fantasy (Unfettered, #2)|Shawn Speakman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1475742702l/31177603.SY75.jpg|51815071]) and then move on to the direct sequel of this story.