This was such a wonderful surprise! I had gotten the impression from covers and reviews of this author's other works that I could expect the work to be more military and sci-fi leaning. Just as well for me I like high fantasy. I love the painting pigments with automatons system of "magic". It brings in all kinds of interesting themes, such as art, robotics/consciousness, empire etc and brings them together in a way I hadn't seen before. I also like the characters who feel complete even minor cameos. The entire thing was a pleasant, fascinating, vivid experience. I think I'll start considering more by this author now. I also want to buy myself a copy since I got this one from the library.