The book started off with so much excitement! It promised a heist in a fantasy world that isn't just yet another fantasy version of medieval Europe or Victorian London. The two male characters had an amazing dynamic - and had some Ol' West vibe to them. And who turns down the promise of Dragon Dung as potent magic? It was bound to be great!

Here's the great parts:

The crazies! Elbrig Taut and Cinza Ortemion really made the first part of the book shine. They felt so unique and I loved them both to bits. I just wish they had played a bigger role in the story than they did.

The fantasy world is quite unique. Granted there's a lot of explaining to be done, and the book keeps repeating it throughout. And the dragons! These dragons aren't pet dragons. They really do eat people and they really do act like grand creatures capable of instant destruction. It was nice to see them be treated as animals but as the grandest ones of all (Though I heavily disliked the idea of referring to them as pigs).

Now the bad parts.
The female main character was very flat compared to the other characters. She felt very solid from the beginning but once I realized that she was nothing more than the role she needed to play, I lost my excitement for her. Then the whole romantic relationship started and I wondered what the point of it was. The woman is supposed to be reclusive and hate interacting with people but one fake kiss and she's falling in love with him? It just continued to be badly handled throughout and it never made much sense. 

The first big heist is so well planned out. But the last 200 pages throws heist upon heist upon heist at you. It's like there was a different ending at some point but it wasn't grand enough so it was rewritten so many times that it ended up as a mashup of 10 different endings. It was exhausting to read the last 200 pages.

That one time the female main character is the main leader, there's suddenly lots of time skipping and no reason to go into depth about anything. But we spent 500 pages when the male characters were leading the heist. 

The religious aspect of the story really bothered me. I get why it was part of it but the side-plot that was spent explaining the religion and re-explaining it? It was just boring. The torches that mean so much to the whole world? Doesn't mean anything to the main characters and we never really interact with them. It was just world building for world building's sake.

Which brings me to the last point. The last 20% of the book had me extending my belief so much that it felt unrealistic even for a fantasy story. I'm all in for saving the world but I was told to blindly believe the ruse and I had no reason to doubt it at the end. The few times when something makes the ruse go wrong, the main characters never truly suffer from it. It's always fixed by another impossible thing. This point alone brought the book down to only 3.5 stars when it had otherwise been a solid 4.

Last but not least, this book could be read as a standalone but it's a trilogy now. I don't think the book needed two extra books. Especially not two very long books.

Would I read this book again? No.
Did I enjoy it? Yes. I did.