This was a surprising book. Progressively gets more complex when you stick with it; a bit frustrating at the beginning because it appears basic, both in terms of dialogue and theme. Then things get wild and weird. I can’t say I enjoyed the characters all that much. They were fine but not noteworthy. The pleasure came from the setting and the overarching question.

This is my first Melville and maybe this is ‘normal’ and I’d never have known it. I just always read that Mieville books were extremely complex and Literary, or that they kitbashed genre in a way that upset purists. Possibly a bunch of this novel just sailed over my head, if that’s the case. Or maybe this was just so accessible and more straight forward so I misaligned my expectations based on reputation.

So, I guess you could say I was relieved? Because I was expecting to be consuming something with a super high cognitive load, but ended up something fairly straight forward with an interesting internal mystery and a cool world/aesthetic. It could have easily been a 5 star read had it been a bit more developed, tightened up, and more complex characterizations. It’s a weird book.