Reviews and Comments

It's intellectually interesting that the narrators in this series are increasingly unreliable as it progresses from book to book, but I'm enjoying reading each one less than the last.

I only discovered towards the end of this that it was not the third book of a trilogy. That would have colored my expectations and, I think, annoyed me less when it didn't actually resolve the overall arc.

I read for world-building more than for character, so this was probably not the book for me. Devils? Starships? Violins? Maybe there's a way to combine these into a cohesive whole, but I was left unsatisfied by how it wrapped up.

I think I'd have preferred to have waited until the sequel was published, because it seems like it's going to lead directly into the next one.

The third book in this alchemical SF series brings it all home... to Earth. There's more depth here about how the "magic" works. Some of the feminist themes develop a little further, but I was disappointed that some of the anti-authoritarian threads didn't play out further.

Pulpy, but with history lessons. I think I'd have preferred to have waited until the sequel was published, because it seems like it's going to lead directly into the next one.

The third book in this alchemical SF series brings it all home... to Earth. There's more depth here about how the "magic" works. Some of the feminist themes develop a little further, but I was disappointed that some of the anti-authoritarian threads didn't play out further.

The second book delivers a deeper look into the alchemical science? magic? system in this universe, which is still interestingly fresh to me. It’s neat to see a character experimenting and discovering how their world works. It reminds me a bit of China Mieville’s Iron Council: outside.ofa.dog/user/aneel/review/1859/s/review-of-iron-council-new-crobuzon-3-on-goodreads#anchor-1859

The feminist thread is getting stronger as the series progresses as well. In the second book, we get more powerful women. They’re still constrained and frustrated by their societies, but have distinctly more agency than we saw in the first book.

What if alchemy were the means of star travel? Interesting concept, but somewhat flat on the characters and plot.