Hardcover ( )

I enjoyed most of the book, but I didn't like the involvement of Fever's mother or how it ended. I hope the two of them meet again in book three. ( )

My thoughts on the series in general are attached to my review for Book 1. Missed opportunity here to develop the Solent kids into characters, the singular focus on Fever is a bit tedious. Don't understand the brutal revisiting and revisiting of the concept that planes are a threat to the realism of a book about predatory cities to the extent that an entire book needs to be written about how the invention of them was suppressed. I mean, plenty of real civilizations struggled with the concept of the wheel for a really long time. ( )

I found this book delightful. I'm not sure it's actually 5-star amazing, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The protagonist, Fever Crumb, is intelligent and admirable. After escaping the chaos of London, which was in the midst of exchanging one oppressive regime for another, she and the two orphans in her care become valued members of a traveling theater. Fever, being a skilled engineer, uses bits of old tech to provide it with electric lighting effects, much to the astonishment of all who are not familiar with such marvels. Some are delighted by them, but others react with self-righteous indignation. Many people in the coastal city where the theater has stopped view the old technologies as sinful. Fever discounts their opinions as being unreasonable, and even (perhaps unwisely) publicly confronts the city's religious leader at one point. This, however, is only one of the challenges she must meet. There is a mystery, here. Someone appears to be trying to build a flying machine, and someone else is apparently killing anyone who succeeds. And then there is her internal turmoil. Can her cherished rationality withstand the biological urges of becoming a woman?

Although the prose still sounds unpolished to me, this is a great story. ( )

Not as good as its predecessor. Still clever and amusing, but the elements of the tale are not as interesting. The take on organized religion should limit its success in the US a bit if anybody notices. ( )