I'm liking these books, particularly for the language and the focus on strong female characters. Goodwin continues to be my favourite (I'm hoping she doesn't get side-lined in the next book) and I like the addition of Achoo.

The use of language is really interesting, and as in the first book, I read the glossary in the back with attention. There's a lot of old-fashioned words and street slang, and it gives the stories a real feel of city life - specifically, city life in a poor area. It seems to me that often in fantasy there's a tendency to mess about with language, and often it's in the footsteps of someone like Tolkien, who was an expert in languages and shouldn't be mimicked by those who aren't - it's frequently painful for all concerned. But Pierce has taken a different route. She isn't making language up from whole cloth here. A lot of the words she uses are familiar to me from other sources (i.e. they're real words and not invented like those from, say, Sindarin) and the way that her characters use words feels real to me. It's consistent through the characters and very well done, I thought. I never get the feeling that she'd slipped up on tone, and it never felt self-consciously "fantasy" to me. I find the flavour it gives the story very enjoyable - the best thing about the series so far.