Samantha Shannon continues to impress. This book is everything I love about high fantasy - magic, vibrant imagery, and epic world building - with the addition of radical inclusion and diversity. While the novel started off a bit slowly for me (I was initially thinking of rating it 4 stars because of the slow start), the rest of the tale and the ending brought it right back up to the full 5. I loved it, I loved the characters, and I can't wait to return to this world someday.