For me this book was a little bit slow in comparison to at least the next two books (I am in the middle of book 4 at the time of this review), but once I got into it I was invested in the characters and world building. I think that the world building is the most interesting part, the characters are a little bit predictable, but not in a bad way! I love how this bridges fantasy and dystopia, I think that is well done, in book 1 I am left wanting a bit more world development and understanding of the history, but I think it works in relation to the series. I do appreciate that the main characters are complex, I found myself questioning them throughout the book wondering if I would agree with their decisions, and wondering if I could trust them. I don't feel like in the first book the cast of characters is super diverse, though I don't think they're necessarily well described in the first book. As characters continue to be developed and explored it becomes clear that the cast is fairly diverse.