i just finished the ARC of this book a week ago, and this guy really is worth a look. Darker fantasy, not medieval, but pre-industrial, fallen civilization setting, with an interesting premise. Characters are interesting, and the book was really hard to put down. The last new author I felt this way about was Patrick Rothfuss. I'll pen a review shortly, but I wanted to know if anyone else has read this yet. It is a very new hardcover release (I just saw it in Chapters last week).