Three Parts Dead

On the one hand, Gladstone has created something entirely unique, here: a magico-legal thriller about apotheosis set in a steampunk theocracy. So far, so good. I love a lot of the little touches: the Seril/Justice story in particular is extremely well-done, as is his handling of the workings of magic. I found the wry humor in several parts charming. Gladstone's characters are a little thin, but well-loved and the ensemble cast overall works well. On the one hand, the ruse of “character X is so naive, I have to tell them about setting point Y” is over-used and very obvious; on the other, it gets the reader up to speed quickly on the (really lovely) world-building.

However, there are some books one can only get through on a plane. This is one of them. Gladstone shifts perspectives approximately once every 2-3 pages and it's completely jarring. This is especially true because there is so much world-building that the reader has to keep in mind, that to remember “OK, she's using the Craft for which she needs her special knife and blah-glyph and there are clouds, so it will be less powerful” for long enough to get back to the scene where that information is relevant is difficult.

I might read more books from the series, but only if the perspective-shifting is substantially better – it's too bad, because it does overwhelm the otherwise good writing.