No I was toying with the idea of buying the first one in the series when I was in Waterstones but opted for Dune instead.

I'll probably check the series out though, it looks pretty good. The only thing about fantasy is, once you've read Steven Erikson and George RR Martin, and read a load of David Gemmell novels, everyone else kind of loses their effigy and the volume is turned way down. Magician and the Serpentwar Saga by Raymond E Feist and the Dune trilogy by Frank Herbert are exceptions to this.