It's a violent yet humorous take on the sword and sorcery genre.

The universe itself is fairly simple compared to WoT. You've got the Union, a medieval almost renaissance kingdom, stuck in the middle between a giant southern empire of devil magic and northern savages.

Meanwhile the elite is mostly made up of stuck up nobility who've grown soft in the quiet years following the last wars to the north and south.

Probably the most loved character of this series is decrepit Inquisitor Glokta, which tends to make funny inner monologues while he has his practicals torture suspected villains.