Not bad at all. I prefer, on the whole, Elizabeth Moon's tales of life in a mercenary company - the Free come over as more like an adventuring party.
This is a dark epic fantasy, more Game of Thrones than Tolkein, and Ruckey pulls no punches on the violence and gore. His magic system is intriguing - and comes with a very heavy price. Magic is based not off the elements but off the seasons. One of the interesting things about the world is that it appears to be atheist - no gods of any kind are mentioned and the world is woven out of basic stuff connected to magic - an unusual approach (And I'm not sure a realistic one - if there were no gods, people would just invent them).
Still, it was a fun read, if you happen to like the darker kind of epic fantasy.