Oh ho! Now the reviews are coming in. I glanced through them, noting the comments on the exposition. Too much info, they said. I have a very different take - too rushed.
Simply too many time-transitions crammed into a tiny space make all the background info seem to rush together. And as well it should because I sense you want to move past the opening salvo to the good stuff.
An example...
Paul Atreides starts at four and rushes through his Bene Gesserit training plus explanation of the Machine Crusade / Bulterian Jihad. Irulan. 2 years older, grooms to be Imperial consort plus explanation of the origins of the human Imperium - Paul likes to fight Harkonnens, hey Paul is sixteen and Irulan is getting married - end of chapter.
See? Too much for one chapter. It's not the info dump that would be the issue - rather there are so many major events going on that all the info has to get packed in there with it.
PS Rhiannon, if you're following, this is my comment about your chapter with the forest - hot sex - disguise - surprise - unsurprise - surprise cage - cage on a wagon - escape - I'm on a boat chapter. It's not the events - it's that they're too close together.
Some more examples...
-The Rowan in Anne McCaffrey's story takes 60 pages t go from age 2 to 16 and even that felt rushed.
-It took [J e n n a] seven chapters to explain her initial story. And that was for one character... so 14 for two. Kim needed only one paragraph, but her story is Conan-simple in comparison to yours. "Where are you going?" "That way" "Ok. I'm going with you"
all things said, I was okay with the info dumps. Yikes! Understand that to remove them will drastically repace the rest of the story.