Beautiful writing, engaging characters and setting, utter disaster of the last part of the book.

I have a pet peeve about books that finish halfway through the story arc, as this one does, so that was never going to go well. But the climactic scenes here, and the emotional place we leave the characters, is deeply uncomfortable (see the top 1 star reviews if you want more info before reading.)

Reflecting overall, I was also vexed earlier on in the story.

Spoiler

Our lead is a engineering prodigy, who's terrible at the arts of war, so we spend a good chunk of time ... watching him learn to ride, brawl and sword-fight. There's a tempting little description of his invention of the compound steam engine, but zero follow-through. Perhaps the second book picks that up, but honestly, I think it'll need to spend so much time rebuilding our belief in the central relationship, there just won't be room.

Will read some other things and see if I want to come back to finish later in the year, but sadly, no hurry.