I enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed Lion's Blood, the first volume in the series. The world-building here is just so good, with the social and political changes resulting from this alternate history rippling through every part of the narrative. I think, though, that this is more Kai's book that Aidan's - the focus has shifted, somewhat, although their friendship is still the heart of the book. And honestly, I don't mind the shift. Aidan's story is interesting, but the political intrigues going on in Bilalistan have always been one of the most interesting parts of this world for me, and that remains the case. I was delighted that part of this intrigue included code-breaking, and the alternate-history version of the Enigma machine, undone by the same sort of user-laziness that allowed Bletchley Park to crack codes during WW2. It appealed to my inner nerd immensely.

The book ends with an afterword by the author, in which he doesn't discount the possibility of future additions to the series. Unfortunately, there don't seem to have been any more since this was published back in 2003, which is a great shame. On the other hand, before Lion's Blood Barnes was entirely new to me, and he does seem to have produced a lot of other books, so I'm happy to have more books of his to explore.