Matt Smith's art is as compelling and enjoyable as ever (the drugged gnomes and the depictions of Ugly's adventurers are standouts) but the story here probably moves a bit too quickly unless it's actually about going to be about something other than what I expected The Folklord is revealed as is a predictable truth about Ansel
The whole metafiction and ironic distance from the cliched fantasy background doesn't connect. Even if Ansel's world is simply a backwater of imaginative construction it would still be more powerful to give it more validity than it has currently. Otherwise why should we care about all these characters and their problems? Only people who know the "truth" seem valid as people.
I'm still reading and I'm still engaged but I'm not feeling that invested.