This looked like a kind of generic fantasy to me, and then it started out with a huge pronunciation guide for the first several pages -- I almost put it back down. But the actual story was fairly intriguing, and it kept getting better and better as it went along. Interesting world, "elves" and "orcs" that aren't called that and aren't much like the standard ones, and a well-developed protagonist. I'm not sure what a next book in the series would be like, but I'll read it.