Crystalborne Sigils book review

There’s quite a bit i liked about Crystalborne Sigils, the magic system is comprehensible and detailed but versatile, the pacing is smooth and consistent, and the characters decently complex. It’s strongest element is probably the first odd third of the book, where we are introduced to our characters and the setting.
The Atturei empire is prejudiced against mages, restricting the privileges of those born of mages and incarcerating any mage they can find. Since our main character (Gya) is a mage, he has to live in secrecy, but the book delivers on this fairly common plot point excellently. Gya isn’t wandering around the countryside, he’s living in a city with his brother, surrounded by people who are terrified of mages (his father was a mage but they don’t believe he is) and guards who are searching constantly for mages. As the story progress, the empire imposes increasingly draconian restrictions on the ‘blighted’ descendants of mages, punishing Gya for simply existing while a sequence of incomprehensible bad luck beleaguers the town. Mages are found and incarcerated and the hatred fro them only grows as the bad luck strikes worse and worse, and it builds into their sense of paranoia and pressure because the readers know how this story ends. It is tense and it is compelling.
The rest of the book is good but not as strong, the paranoia element disappears as Gya escapes from the city and the narrative becomes more of a travel/adventure novel driven by time pressure, only isn’t as effectively implemented as the persecution and doesn’t generate much pressure/tension for the reader. Gya’s character also suffers in this part of the narrative, with his primary interactions being a feeling of insufficiency and desire for his personal goal (being intentionally obscure to avoid spoilers.) He had more, and more varied, interactions back in the city, so the constant mentions of him feeling insufficient leave him feeling both a bit one-note and impotent, unable to affect the narrative as the main character should.
The climax of the narrative is both a bit underwhelming, being somewhat perfunctory with little occurring in the actual culminating struggle and few answers given, and exciting as it launches our characters onto a new, magical journey.