plus--plus rating for this Tchaikovsky novel. Coming on the heels of the second installment of Children of Time (and by "heels" I mean like a 2.5yr hiatus from reading anything of his), this was a refreshing deviation from his sci-fi novels.

With a pacing & general plot akin to the first Mystborn book, this was just fun throughout. His characters are cheeky and grim, the world of Ilmar is occupied by some prima facie Orwellian empire (Palleseens), and there's some demonic monstrosities + God.

The novel follows the explosion of a revolution born out of a few blackmarket dealers desire to get this mysterious token, a few other vagabonds' shard desire to go loot the Reproach (fully haunted quarter of the city which is hilarious and super cool). Upon return from the Reproach, Ruslav is ripped to shreds and brought back to life by the priest Yasnic's God. Ruslav is far more of a thug than a born-again christian and this interplay is so fun to read. Upon hearing of the resurrection, the befouled and cursed duke summon's Yasnic to heal him in kind. After Yasnic fails to explain to deaf ears that that's not how God works, the Duke sentences him and the whole lot of them to death.

An invested merchant Blackmane is convinced that Ivarn (professor + gambler thought to be in possession of the mysterious token) is in fact in possession of the mysterious token, so he works with the executioner Hoist (who takes pride in comforting the sentenced in their final moments, always a professional) to hang them just enough to give the impression of being dead so that he can extort the token from Ivarn who, ding-a-ling, does not have the token.

The rescued militants return to business as usual, though trying to lay low. A strike from the oppressed peoples which makes it way towards the university for solidarity with the intellectual class results in Ivarn (professor at university) being outed as still-very-much-alive by the responding Pal forces. This is the needle which breaks the camel's back and causes all out revolution to explode.

Each of the unlikely heros/antiheros play fun & endearing roles in the ensuing chaos and overall its pretty good to read. Only thing I dislike thematically is how obviously evil the bad guys are, there's no grey area here. The good guys are also pretty evil but in redeeming ways which are understandable when you're in the permanent underclass of an oppressive state. The oppressive state is overtly Orwellian with departments of "Right Thinking" etc. etc.

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