I can see all the ways in which this was a really good book and definitely an interesting YA universe/set of characters. Not sure I want to keep reading, though. It might just not be for me.

AND YOU KILLED THE DOG! HOW DARE YOU! There are very few unforgivable sins in my fictional universes, but don't you dare make me fall in love with the dog and then kill it! Even if justified by circumstances. That may have lost this book an entire star.

It's been a while since I'd gotten halfway through a book and could not go to sleep until I finished it because I had to know what happened.
So thank you for giving me that again.
While the beginning is not exactly slow, the book did feel like it took a while to really get going, but the payoff for all the world building and the investment in all the characters was totally worth it.
And I'm really liking this trend I've seen of moving epic fantasy out of the Middle Ages. Seriously, this book was really brilliant.

Hmm. I think I appreciated what this story wanted to do (and did, actually) without ever really getting into it. The weird mixing of celebrity and delegate was extremely clever, the questions raised by the narrative about violence (in all its forms) were provocative and all the better for not being answered and I really appreciated the main characters, especially Suyana, who is awesome!
But it was a very...cerebral appreciation. It never tugged at me and made me miss it and want to read faster. I enjoyed its thoughtfulness, but never quite connected to it.

I think the 3 stars is a bit generous, although the last 25 pages or so were significantly better. Probably because of the characters present.
This was a very silly book--good silly, but silly nonetheless. It read like a pastiche of a Victorian novel and the characters and completely improbable events that were always greeted with an erudite witticism only added to that element. I liked the silliness.
But silliness has to be balanced with depth. You can't take me on a 450 page adventure and provide with me characters who lack any real emotional depth. It took until the last ten pages before I was reasonably convinced that any characters was actually experiencing feelings and, in the meantime, the narrative had provided five marriage proposals and three conversions, both towards and away from religion. If you're writing a story about evolution and belief - even a very silly story - you HAVE to convince me that faith and its loss are real. No one will ever be Terry Pratchett again, but Pratchett's novels are the ideal example of mixing brilliant absurdity, trenchant critique, and characters whose emotions are palpable.
THese characters just...sat there on the page. With the exception of Charles Darwin, I found the idea that any of them had real inner feelings to impossible and that took most of the bite out of the theological wrangling and the perils of the journey. I would have enjoyed this story so much more if the ridiculousness had a bit more heft.
(It occurs to me that the novel might not mean to be ridiculous. I hope it did mean to be. I would feel very bad if it wanted to be taken seriously, because nope! So not happening.)

In other news, it turns out that all those novels I got because their authors were up for the Campbell award are really good. Who knew?
Of course, at this rate, I'll have this lot finished right when Hugo ballots for this year are due. Such is life.
I'm discovering a fondness for city-scale mysteries set in secondary worlds. Somehow, "someone is murdered and the repercussions might shake the entire city. Fortunately, our intrepid heroine (and it has usually been heroine) is on the job. Also, magic" is far more interesting than the rise of the chosen one and the dawning of a new age.
Anyway, if you're looking for a mystery/legal drama set in a mostly modern fantasy world, this is for you. Now I should go read the second book and keep my fingers crossed that the third was nominated for the Hugo this year...

I remain somewhat in awe and more than a little jealous of Elizabeth Bear's ability to take on ANY genre of spec-fic and write it magnificently. To be sure, she is something of an acquired taste (you mean not everyone likes their sci-fi sprinkled with Arthurian legends and quotations by Victorian poets?). Still, I really enjoyed this series and the strangeness of the world Bear created, one with few easy answers for the good guys and some seriously impressive baddies (Insert Shatnerian "CONNNN!!!!" here). Complex, strange as anything and with an appreciation for narrative that doesn't always come through in weird fiction, I'm going to need to find more Bear to read.

I really don't remember the last time I was this spectacularly "meh" about anything. Not because I can point to anything wrong with the book, just because I had really no feelings about it. There's nothing to point to about the characters or plot being off, the story is, at least in theory, interesting. The people should be likeable. But it was a slog to finish and I couldn't bring myself to care about anyone or anything happening.
Which is disappointing as I've heard good things about this book and I can see all the reasons it might be appealing. It just...wasn't.

Bear can do no wrong in my mind and this was definitely the best Wild West steampunk I've ever read. Also, this book gets the award for the best use of a sewing machine in combat.

Unfortunately, I'm kinda not a fan of steampunk (or fantasy) set anywhere west of New York and I'm even a bit picky about the east coast as well. Actually, the last book I really enjoyed that was urban fantasy and set in the US was ALSO by Elizabeth Bear.
I enjoyed this one as well; Bear is just one of those writers for me. Not sure whether it's a 3 or 4 star book, but it seems unfair to dock points for writing in a genre I don't like.

Having revisited this series, I remain delighted with it.
My only real critique is that this read very much like a middle-of-the-series book. But Isabella is wonderful and the subtle riffs on Darwin are fantastic. Everything that was good about the first two is here in abundance as well. On the other hand, I'm not sure how much newness there is. It does feel very similar in pacing and narrative to the previous one--which works on one hand, but it a bit frustrating on the other hand. I want more details! I want to know what's going to happen!

Umm, full disclosure, I received a free copy of this book from the author.

Right, that's out of the way. This was fun! The 19th century lit geek in me enjoyed the Dracula references - especially because they constantly called back to the book itself. For all that this novel followed the usual beats of the YA plot, the narrative never felt overly forced once it got into full swing. (I could deal with a little less tragic back story in YA fantasy, although I don't think it's unjustified here.) And the romantic
elements worked--mostly because they were part of the narrative background.

One thing I thought was very well done - there was one scene where a parent strikes a child and everyone reacted properly! It wasn't ignored, it wasn't laughed away, it was treated like domestic abuse. It may seem weird to harp on that, but my sense is that fantasy novels (set in modern times) where the characters are fighters tend to downplay the problems with violence (not so much during the fights, but outside of them) so it was nice to see that not happen.

Definitely an enjoyable ride and I'm glad I got a chance to read it.