I saw this as one of the fairly few SF / Fantasy books in a New York times list of the 100 best novels of the 21st Century (so far, presumably). I had the whole trilogy in a paperback box set that I picked up cheaply from Amazon so I thought I had better give a go.
And I’m glad that I did. This is very “grown-up” fantasy - there are no punches pulled here, lots of people die in gruesome ways (even those that don’t deserve it), there is brutality, force breeding and not much in the way of light relief.
It interweaves three apparently unrelated stories of a girl, an apprentice and an older woman. Each is cleverly told in a different voice and style (the oder woman is addressed as “you”, which is well done). There is no long exposition of the background, what we need to know is gradually revealed as the story proceeds, as does the terminology and (at least some of) the history and background of this “broken” Earth.
It isn’t an easy read, either in terms of explanation or providing much comfort but it is compelling and very well done, not your typical fantasy at all (indeed I suspect that by the end of the trilogy much that seems like “magic” may have a more rational, scientific explanation). I can see both why it would the Hugo award and appeared on the NYT list - thanks for the heads up there!