Andrew Caldecott writes complicated stories set in whimsical dystopias, but does so with an unapologetic intelligence and a straightforward approach to telling, not showing. So when a character decides something, changes their mind about something, or reaches certain conclusions, the story simply tells us about it as it is happening. It gives the characters an odd sense of agency, as if they are informing the reader and the writer that this is the way it is now, get used to it, work out the implications and see what happens. It's kind of refreshing. 

In this second and final book in the duology, various forces and individuals align in conflict and alliance and temporary truce as the sins of the past bear all sorts of fruit, not excluding murder, revenge, redemption and the possible final extinction of humanity. The heroes and the villians are all interestingly complicated and flawed, the adventures are exciting and suspenseful and the post-apocalyptic world is unusally weird and wonderful as well as horrible.