She Who Became the Sun

Heavyhanded, at times. Clumsy exposition through dialog, at times. Preposterous ... at times. Also gripping, beautifully written, well paced, compassionate, pragmatic, morally flexible, and unputdownable.

A smorgasbord of characters, all of them with strong drives: for power, revenge, justice, kindness; sometimes in odd proportions. I realize that makes it sound like a boring palace war intrigue blah blah soap opera, and there's quite a bit of that, but there's SO much more: the more interesting characters are profound. Worth journeying with: they keep the reader on their toes. They grow in unexpected ways.