This is book 1 of the "Commonweal" series.

This note contains spoilers for the book.

I've known Graydon since the rec.arts.sf.written days (Usenet), and I'm very glad to see he's gotten a book finished (this puts him in company like Ryk Spoor (Seawasp) and Jo Walton).

It's fascinating! A very different social and economic system, and never info-dumped about. So you're always picking up little bits of new info from the subtext, which is fun.

The basic story is military, in a magic-using society. With some rather old and rather powerful people, some of them with "histories", hanging around. We gradually realize the narrator is one of them, in his own way (not, perhaps, competitive with the three extreme examples, but still).

Highly recommended!

Also some high-power magical whimsy; those who've read it will know what I mean :-).