Sounds interesting, I'll pick it up when the money comes in.
Now Ross, have you read Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence? You said that you were going for a more villainous character and a kinda darker tone, and that's probably one of the biggest epitomes of both of those things in recent fantasy. The main character's a 13 year old kid who's uncomfortable degrees of shadow the edgehog, but it's extremely well written and quite compelling. The setting is really interesting, too.