Quick-take: Slow burn. Odd perspective. Got Better.

Dan's Review

The world is divided between those with special powers, called Orogenes, who have the power to manipulate the Earth, quelling earthquakes or causing distortions. Sometimes they do this by intent or by accident. Learning control and calming their emotions is a strong necessity with them. The others are Guardians, who watch over the Orogenes. Then there are those without magical powers. These people are typically referred to by their "use-castes", such as "Strongbacks", which provide general labor. There are other roles, but they were more minor in the story.

Much of the book split between differing members of these class tiers. Each is adventuring off to achieve an objective... trying to find a lost family member, quelling trouble in a village, or escaping an Orogene-caused quake. The dominant story seemed to be the Orogene pair. A lot of the rules of the magic system and the lore of the world was explored here.

The overall story was interesting even if there was not so much "action" happening. Basically, each section was a lot of tension resolved by diplomacy paired with some skilled Orogene magic. In a way, I actually appreciated that. The vast majority of fantasy novels I read are using their powers for fighting. The magical beings here are instead attempting to solve difficult engineering problems and stabilize weather disruptions.

One of the story characters that was followed was very awkwardly referred to in the 2nd person. I never got over that. I was reading about "he", "she", "proper name", and so on. Then the next chapter comes, and the author is writing "You start looking for X", "You are worried about Y". It was all around confusing. The tense shift was also never explained.

It took about 4 chapters for to get into a groove with the different characters and magic system. Once it clicked, I started enjoying it a lot more.

Score 4/5. I am picking up the next one. I like that this is finished trilogy. If the series wasn't finished, I'd probably walk way.