Miéville does what he does so well: creates a new reality, a whole world, with its lore and language and symbols and history and norms and religions, and invites you to step inside. I loved this one. Sometimes M gets a little, I don’t know, dark and gross and it can be heavy, although even then I love his writing. But this one was, well, not light, but distinctly not gross and not dark. Hopeful and interesting and full of detail and mad but not disheartening. Enjoyed it. Would read again.

Quotes

‘But everybody knows—’ Sham said, then stopped. He exhaled. ‘Alright,’ he said. There were no certainties. He itemised what he knew. (p181)

The silence became excruciating. (p119)

Everyone knows something worth learning. (p194)