I feel like this book missed the point of being historical fiction  and a fantasy book. It's well written, very engaging, and I'd masterful in the way I expected from the author, however, it's a hard press to call this fantasy. 

As an academic, Kuang was trying hard to make sure everything was backed up with facts, and her own added elements were over justified. Which defeats the point of fiction and fantasy. I was hoping for a unique remaining of how the industrialization could have gone if magic was involved, instead nothing new was added. Other than being a vessel to dump pages of etymology on the reader, it did not feel used it the book at all. I'm not a huge language fan so I was often skipping those paragraphs. When they were little mentions it was good character development, but the pages of etymology slowed the pace of the book and made it felt padded. 

It's still a solid read but you should go into it expecting less of a book and note of an academic paper with some plot thrown in for funsies. Read a couple of reviews where people said it felt like she was trying to justify her fictional and fantastical elements every te they were brough up and I can't agree more. It's a fictional novel, we know it never happened, make us believe it within the confines of your world and don't worry about the confines of the real world. 

Quite excited to see what she writes next though, I love her writing.