Seeking Beta(s) for Epic Fantasy

Completed and then revised a number of times, it's high time this found another pair of eyes to have a look at it. I'd appreciate anything from a line-by-line to a general overall theme and feel overview. Blunt is fine, no need to pull punches.

The novel is 88k long. To provide a taste of the opening scene (which was revised), please follow this link to the SYW forum:

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showpost.php?p=7986206&postcount=14

Here is the tentative query letter:

When an invading goblin army sweeps aside all resistance, two disenfranchised samurai desperately search for options to save the J’in Empire.

Daughter of the Emperor, Soki finds herself challenged by a multitude of intrigues, the chauvinistic Imperial Court, and her own self-doubt. When the Emperor is presumed dead while leading a campaign to oust the goblin warlord, she escapes a coup and finds the most unlikely allies: a gypsy caravan, an ork slaver, and the portentous blessing of a god. She struggles with her options in an arena where the familiar concepts of honour and social caste have little meaning.

A dishonoured samurai, Tagaretsu escapes the destruction of his village, aiding someone barely remembered from lore and fairytales – an elven druid. Battling goblin search parties, ruthless daemons and elven cultural hauteur, he discovers the horrific source of the goblins’ inexplicable gains in power. Racing into the goblin’s mountainous homeland, Tagaretsu threatens to awaken long-slumbering gods while searching for the sole artefact that may balance the terms of engagement.

Click to expand...

Anyone interested is free to PM me.

Thanks.

A fair question: one I struggled a bit while researching what type of fantasy to categorize this as.

The real answer is I haven't been able to find any definitive answer to say that it is specifically High fantasy versus Epic fantasy, that isn't then outrightly contradicted elsewhere on the interwebs.

It is set in a completely secondary world, loosely based off of Japanese-Chinese-Korean culture and myth. It involves the hardships and trials faced by the two main characters, overcome by feats of might, magic and ingenuity. Both characters begin at point A and develop over time to cope with nastiness at scene X, Y or Z.

Within the SYW thread, my first scene was at one point or another compared to something by Terry Brooks or the Cleric's Quintet (R.A. Salvatore), two authors I am truly humbled to have my work compared to. I'd never have the gall to make that kind of a statement. By that comparison I suppose it *could* be categorized as High fantasy.

In all honesty, I'm not stringently attached to the label (Epic fantasy). If a beta/reviewer/agent saw it and thought it was better off as High fantasy or Pink-Rubber-Boots fantasy, that's one of the aspects I would like to address.

Apologies if the answer got verbose.