Been reading this for the first time. Overall I like it so far, and it is giving me a pretty good feel for SW as a setting in ways the sourcebooks don't. The sourcebooks are more of a birdseye view, and this is more personal.
I do have one criticism, but its related to the formatting as opposed to the content.
There really should be some kind of break when the text transitions to a different group of people in a different part of the world. There have been several spots where I go from one sentence to the next, and I read the next sentence expecting it to be Kalen and Jad, but we've abruptly switched to the head of Gryphon College. Another example is going from Kalen meeting Vscount Ridgestone on deck to Randae in his office without even a carriage return in between them. It's a bit jarring. This is all on the kindle edition, and don't have the print to compare to.
For the good stuff I do like the characters, and in general I've always liked the little short stories that prefaced chapters in your source-books. I guess you can say I've always liked your style of writing, and the stories you want to tell. It's nice to see it working in a longer narrative. I wasn't quite sure what to expect in a jump from game source-books to a novel, but at the same time I am not surprised that I am enjoying it. It's not like the jump itself is unprecedented; after-all you have Weiss, Hickman, and Ed Greenwood as prior examples. It's just I think there is no guarantee a writer can make the leap from one to another with certainty, and you've done a good job of it so far.
