Daniel Abraham, Long Price

I am conflicted as far as that series goes. I liked the first three books but disliked the last one. The first three books had good characters and had good antagonists that I could identify with. (Maybe not Seedless, but he's just awesome anyway.) The fourth book had that random girl and I just wasn't attatched to the book as much as I was the other three. (Yes, I care about good antagonists.)

The characters were altogether wonderful. Otah, Micah, Seedless, Otah's sister, and that general whose name I can't remember are standouts for me. The magic was good and provided a lot of room for clever ideas. Locally, the world building was done very well, but I never got a picture of the whole thing in my head. I always knew that town, or that city. I had all the dots but did not have enough information to connect them together. This is especially apparent in the third book when places are introduced that I didn't even know existed.

Overall, despite the flaws, they were good books and I do recommend them. If you liked the books his Dagger and the Coin series is great as well.

 

Its been awile since I read them so I can't recall those bits and pieces of the story. As for your last point, if at any time any nation went to war with them they could have Seedless destroy every crop and every womb or that rock andat cause massive earthquakes. They seemed to have a small guard but thats about it.