Wolfhound century

Excellent and highly original worldbuilding, bizarre and rich a la Mieville imagination, deep, suffocating, dark and very noir atmosphere. Some characters well shaped (Kantor, Vishnik), some not so much, including the main ones (Lom and Maroussia). Unfortunately, the story itself is rather thin and bare, also somewhat disjointed. I will definitely read the rest of the trilogy, hoping that, having liberated himself from the worldbuilding, the author will provide a better storyline.
PS. Because of the cover, I expected it to be an alternate USSR. It was actually an alternate,steampunk, Tsarist Empire.

Gorgeous world-building, all sorts of good stuff with the sci-fi soviet noir setting, but — and this is a huge but — there's simply no ending to the book. None. The book ends like a chapter ends. No closure whatsoever. Obviously sequel is in works, and hopefully arrives soon, because this book doesn't stand alone. I recommend waiting until a sequel is out before reading this one... I was very disappointed in the ending, but the storyso far is promising.