The characters were well-written, with reasonable responses and motivations for this histories, and the setting was thoroughly developed — though crossing the desert was a little underwhelming after all the talk of how expansive it was... The setting also reminds me a little of Middle Earth... The actual plot was interesting: simple, but well-thought-through, and (mostly)  was successful.at keeping my attention, however, the first third (?) was a little slow, and there didn't seem to be much of a mission (other than training and revenge, which got a tad repetitive).
All in all, I enjoyed this book a lot!