Thoughtful and beautifully written, as always. Not a lot happens in this one but that's okay, nothing wrong with a slower pace and lower stakes. The food descriptions made me hungry

Loved it, obviously. It's kind of interesting to read these books out of order and see how both the characters and the writing have developed. Kingfisher was still figuring out gnoles in this one! I just read Daggerbound so I'm already enormously fond of Learned Edmund but he's kind of a little brat when we first met him!

My first ever ARC from NetGalley! I was so so excited to get approved for this because I just adore T. Kingfisher romantasy. This one absolutely measures up, with endearing characters (both new friends and old), a sweet, slow-burn romance, lots of daring rescues and peril, and some marvelous worldbuilding.

These books are admittedly kind of formulaic, so keep that in mind as a disclaimer if that sort of thing bothers you in series. I, for one, am not complaining. When I eat a chocolate chip cookie, I want at least one chocolate chip in every bite. When I read a World of the White Rat book, I want the opposites-attract couple to kiss at the 50% mark and declare their love at the 75% mark. And they always deliver! Though I confess, some of the interim can get a tiny bit tedious with the characters' self-doubt and whisker-twisting. Why would either Edmund or the Dervish doubt that the other one is in love with them? They're both amazing!

My experience was skewed somewhat because (as of finishing Daggerbound) I still have not read Clockwork Boys or The Wonder Engine. I was aware that Edmund was a major character in those and he (and the plot) allude a fair amount to the events of those books. I felt like I did okay but I did find myself wishing I had that background. Next on my list now! A couple of twists/reveals (presumably) would not have been surprises to me had I read Edmund's previous books and I'm curious to hear what other readers think.

The book could have benefited from a tiny bit more recap, honestly, specifically of Swordheart. The Dervish spends a lot of this book thinking about how angry he is at Sarkis but I honestly kind of forgot why. The Dervish also spends a lot of time missing Angharad, who we have not yet met on the page. I thought that was a great detail and I'm extremely hyped for the next book, Shieldborn. As lovely as the romances are in these books, the friendships are also very well done and could use more time to shine.

Recommended if you like: nerds explaining their interests, flirty banter, daring rescues, gnoles

Fun and light murder mystery with a historical twist. The commentary on sexism was often pretty on-the-nose (e.g. "as women, we are taken less seriously and we can use this to our advantage in this investigation!") but the characters are fun.

I'm never mad to get more Murderbot but this was not the strongest installment in my opinion. It was kind of unfocused and directionless. The best part of these books is watching Murderbot develop as a person and watching it bounce off of the other characters, and there just wasn't enough of that--the other characters spend a lot of the book pushing it away and it spends a lot of the book thinking "ew, children!" but not much time actually reacting to the children. This book, in my opinion, was too much "pew pew" and not enough substance.

I was really pretty surprised that I didn't like this more. It has some awesome awesome awesome concepts and yet somehow the book itself becomes kind of a slog. The first punches hit really hard (squid cult! Goss and Subby! shabti union leader! tattoo gangster!) but there are so many punches that at a certain point they lose their oomph (chaos Nazis? gun farmers? etc etc etc) It's like when you put all the sodas at the restaurant into one cup. I love the Dr. Pepper and the cream soda but when you combine them with Fanta and ginger ale and Coke Zero it's eventually just TOO much.

The awesome concepts are also not done any favors by the weak characters or the increasingly incoherent plot. But I just can't stress enough how much "cult that worships giant squid" and "Egyptian shabti overthrows pharaonic class, routinely possesses statues in the modern world to help magical familiars strike for better wages" are so precisely up my alley. It's a wild fever dream that could have benefited from some more editing (or expansion into a series?)