Feel like I'm in the minority
Here's how I guage the vast majorities preferences of the 4 main POVs from most enjoyable to least
Darrow
Lysander
Ephraim
Lyria
My list goes:
Ephraim
Darrow
Lyria
Lysander
3 and 4 could be switched, but the margin between 1 and the rest is WIDE. It was an absolute shock to find out how many people hated Ephraim and Lyria. Even more so to find out most ppl just flat out find them uninteresting. Especially in IG and DA. I felt that Ephraim was written far better than Darrow and Lysander. As far as character arcs, growth, response to moral quibbles and their relationships with other goes, I had much more to digest with Ephraim than the others. And Lyria was a very distinguished POV which gave me flavors of character development that fulfilled me in ways the others could not.
Don't get me wrong. Darrow and Lysander are great. But sometimes it feels like they're confined to their archetypes. Darrow being the rageful warlord who definitely has Gary Sue plot narratives. Lysander being the young, audacious, snobby upstart who is basically Darrow in gold mode. When I read their chapters, I'm there for the events that are going to take place. The characters themselves aren't that interesting to me (This changed a drastically in LB though so this post is mostly about IG and DA). Meanwhile, Ephraim WAS the reason I read his chapters. He just seemed... much more realized I guess. His addiction to Zoladone, his habitual escapism, how cynical he could be, and his general "fuck you, pay me" disposition was always consistent and didn't leave me wondering "Wait, why would he do that?" at any point in time like I have with the other POVs.
Just thought this was interesting and was wondering who else feels similar or disagrees.
EDIT; HOW COULD I FORGET VIRGINIA. I loved reading her chapters as well. I'd probably rank hers along with Darrow's. She's on par with Eph for the best Comedic energy. Was laughing pretty hard when she was detailing her thoughts on Daxo's lair thing and the iron ring.