For this reason, some of the specific things I may have wished to comment upon while reading the book may have slipped my mind. Nonetheless, here are my thoughts on the book as a whole.
The Faction Paradox universe has fostered some truly wonderful pieces of fiction. In fact, the quality level is so high for the series that when I label "Weapons Grade Snake Oil" as middle-of-the-pack for this property, it is in no way a dismissal.
If this book is more "Head of State"/"Warring States" than "Newtons Sleep"/"Brakespeare Voyage" it only means that it is a very good book and doesn't quite hit the heights of those in the Faction Paradox universe that I feel are among the best novels I have ever read.
Like the best Faction fiction, it is full of ideas. Possibly too many, in that there are so many notions tossed out that I wish would be explored more fully and I often found myself wanting the book to be about some of those ideas rather than the story we were getting.
But then the next great idea would happen, and I'd want to follow that one. And so on, and so on.
Somewhat unusually for the Faction (though hardly unprecedented) this book focuses mainly on fun. It is in nature a 'heist' story, though a unique take on one. Rebellious Faction member Father Christémas has a plan to steal a relic of the time before the anchoring of the thread - an item called the "2nd Second".
To do this, he puts together an unlikely team that includes Faction runaway Sojourner Hooper-Agogo, his own servant Cousin Chaz, and the
The neatest ideas are not the vaguely-defined concepts like the 2nd Second or Blue Praxis, but concepts behind entire cultures like the cymbiotes [sic - and for a reason] where Sojo comes from, or the gambling society of the Chance Coteries.
My favorites, though, are related to The Hussar and his assistant, real-life pirate Anne Bonny. This
estranged Houseworlder has gone through elective semantectomy to have his given name removed - leaving only the title of The Hussar. The implications for the series which Faction Paradox spun off of are quite intriguing.
Also, his relationship with his timeship, the Kraken, is... interesting. Sadly Anne Bonny isn't as good as the red-headed historical character from another Faction novel (the incomparable "Newtons Sleep") but she is interesting enough in her own way. She certainly doesn't get as much exposure as Aphra Behn did in the other book, as she is not as central a character.
Each (short) chapter is given a "Dune"-style quotation at the beginning. Some of these are fascinating; some have the feel of later "Dune" books where Frank Herbert was clearly long grown weary of the necessity he had given himself of coming up with this stuff every few pages. As there are even some real excerpts among the fake ones (I think?) it lends a real authenticity to the world(s) being created.
If there's a particular failure with the book then it is sadly with the heist plot itself - which is central to the book's narrative. The rules are vague, the destination unclear, and the resolution abrupt and deliberately confusing.
I get that this is Faction Paradox and there are things we simply will not understand. But the way it plays out is unsatisfying, underwhelming, and as far as I can tell, not actually set up in any way. (Though I'm happy to be proven wrong on this in subsequent rereads.)
That this bathetic resolution does not damage the book as a whole is a testament to the fact that everything else is not only done well, but is engaging enough that the plot basically is of little interest anyway. I do dearly wish we could have spent some more time with the Bankside crew. I haven't even talked here about Cousin Haribeaux (whose cybernetic nature and nomenclature could lead one to associate him with the Kandyman!) or Cousin Rupert and what they get up to together.
Nor the politics of the Eleven Day Empire, and what Godmother Antigone has planned for Father Christémas. For that matter, Sojo herself and the future of her society would be enough for a complex and satisfactory novel.
All of this stuff being lumped in together means that none of it gets developed fully, but feels instead like existing realities we get a mere taste of before necessarily moving on. "Weapons Grade Snake Oil" is a cruise ship where we barely go on shore before it's time for the next leg of the trip. Sure, we miss the exciting locale we just visited, but there's something just as inviting around the bend.
And I loved all of it.
(3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 if we ignore the distracting typos throughout)
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