I thought the characters seemed particularly real though. Real issues and real history with one another and the characterization was definitely there. I think at times they seem Gary Sue-ish/Mary Sue-ish but not enough to be like, "This is ridiculous..."
Olem, Taniel, and Ka-Poel are my favorites along with Bo and Nila.
Tamas was too irrational at times considering his supposed strategic prowess and I didn't really care for Adamat. Vlora is... meh. Basically there as a dramatic insert. Ricard is okay. Fell is pretty badass. And Adamat's wife is essentially there as a dramatic insert as well instead of being a character that develops and grows over time.
Considering this is his first trilogy (heck, his first three books, period) I think he's done a fairly admirable job and they're all pretty fast reads. The pacing works, the prose is decent, and the story, for the most part, is strong. He also seems pretty capable when it comes to constructing believeable battle scenes.
And the magic system, especially for Priviledged, is highly intriguing. Unfortunately he only really gets into that particular brand during the third book.
You're right. The characters were real; maybe that's the part I need to become accustomed to. I need to be able to identify with a character or a story even when a set of people are not groomed to be specifically the heros with likeable traits. Taniel and Ka-Poel were unique and held the story up. Olem was fine as a secondary, but I didn't think much of the rest.
If that were MY first trilogy, though, I'd certainly be happy with it.
To some extent, maybe I'm salty about the lack of proper characterization of the enemy. The Kez felt absolutely faceless in book 2. I don't need to necessarily care about them, but I don't want them to just be there as meat for the grinder.
Yeah the Kez didn't seem particularly evil, except I remembered the fact that it was Ipille (their King) that had Nikslaus decapitate Tamas' wife and send him the head. Ipille is also just not a very good leader in general, and horrible to his people.
In the latter of book two and throughout book three, I think the presence of Kresimir grants them more of a 'face'.