This book sprawled in every sense. Over space, over time, over ideas, there's just a LOT here.
I really enjoyed watching the threads of the story spin together - Knox kept them, I think, deliberately messy and I appreciated that she didn't try to get that perfect puzzle piece feel. (Basically, everyone other than DWJ never quite succeeds.)
And also I was just so intrigued by the fantasy of the book - there's a lot to be said about what it is that authors see as the redemptive aspect of their stories. What are we returning to?

Knox's fantasy is that magic can save the world, meaning the actual earth. The absoluteness of the book, it's ability to change the world, is—for Knox—the capacity to do the things that feel impossible. The great god of the deserts versus the little god of the swamp, the emptiness versus lush and also gross fecundity. And to have it, ostensibly, kind of be a Torah is very interesting.

Also, I feel like one of the minor but major sea changes is that, these days, when I notice subtext between two characters of the same gender, it's usually because it's there intentionally and meant to go somewhere rather than queer bait. Which is kind of nice.