Kalamar uses all the standard conventions we know and love from the Player's Handbook, Monster Manual, and the supported game settings like The Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk. For example, the groups of elves mentioned include high, gray, wood, wild and dark, kind of like the elf entry in the Monster Manual. My impression is that Kalamar is emphasizing craftsmanship and detail over spunk and style.
Nothing is at all shocking or unusual about the setting, but everything fits together really neatly.
While Greyhawk and the Forgotten Realms seem to be thrown together based upon the needs of the home campaigns of their respective authors, I never once criticized the believability or rationality of any of Kalamar's features. First and most noticeably, Greyhawk history is really the history of the migration patterns of six different human races, while the same is true in Kalamar, where there are also six different groups of humans and a nice map depicting their migrations. You can draw some connections between the six races in each setting if you want. Next, Greyhawk political history is dominated by the Great Kingdom which conquered most of the continent. The Great Kingdom started in the west and conquered much of the central Flannaes.