I really enjoyed reading this! From the prose to the shakespeare references and the characters, I was hooked from the start. The narrator did an excellent job at keeping my attention. The only two points that would have made me knock it down a star was a) we never really learned about Phillipa's story and it felt incomplete and b) james probably shouldnt have had an ambiguous death. Although i am on the side of that last letter he left Oliver was to give Oliver a chance for hope at a second life after james instead of probably killing himself too. Great book, i loved it. I really needed it.

I loved the writing, the world building, and the parallels in our real life to their space empire age. The characters were well developed, i loved yskandr almost immediately as well as three seagrass. I did think the last quarter of the book was rushed. But the story and writing was so good I don't think it mattered enough to change my rating to 4 stars. We were removed however from the role of an ambassador quite quickly and I sort of wished we could have read about Mahit doing ambassadorial-typical work instead of mentioning it two or three times (visa issuance, answering letters). I thought it was fun that the she/they pronouns was represented in the integration of one mahit and two yskandrs (i'm joking of course). I wanted more for Nineteen Adze's character arc but what could be more than becoming Emperor? Also I wished Eight Loop had a larger role in this as I still wasn't clear about why she sent a letter to Lsel asking for an ambassador asap. Clearly I'm still thinking about this story and will be until I get my hands on the second book. I wish Twelve Azalea was still alive but it was either going to be him or Five Agate. I'm glad Five Agate lives and I hope she becomes the new emperor's ezuazuacat.