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captainraccoon's review
5.0
"I don't reckon all the power in the world could make up fer not being able to see the sky."
Heaven in book form.
(I'll add to this when I've stopped swooning. Mebbe.)
kaje_harper's review
5.0
4.95 stars. It should be said up front, this is not a romance. It is an imaginative steampunk AU fantasy with a gay main character, and an array of LGBTQ secondary characters. There is romance, but not in a happy-ending for the MC way. Love may come as the series progresses, but don't expect even a HFN yet.
This is a wonderful, unique story with a narrator who is appealing, fun, bright but uneducated, and whose backstory makes you ache for him even as you have to admire his spirit. Picadilly is a young gay guttersnipe with a flair for cards, an exploited past, and a willingness to court trouble. When he encounters Milord, a dangerous figure from the stews of the city below, the smart thing would have been to keep his distance. Instead, Picadilly cheats him at cards, setting in motion a chain of events that will lead him to a sexy tormented ex-clergyman with a heart of gold (and the body of a college boxer), a skyship captain of brilliant and shy ambiguity, and a lesbian navigator who sees visions of Kraken.
Some people have had problems with the dialect of the narrator - if you read Regency romances, you should have little trouble with it, related as it is to the slang and thieves' cant that peppers many of those books. (I thank Georgette Heyer for my familiarity with many of the phrases.) If that's not familiar, check a sample. The beginning is a thick as it ever gets. I personally found it smooth and easy reading.
The story has a fast-moving plot and the people in it have relationships of many kinds, equally presented without judgment. The characters are all flawed, and all fascinating. The world-building is satisfying, but not intrusive.
The only reason that I take off 0,05 stars is that I really, really hate narrators who tell you stuff in advance, of the "I would later find out X but right now I was not aware of it..." or "Little did I know then that X..." kind. Well, I really want to NOT be told X either, right then. Several fascinating events were lightly spoilered by this narrative style. If I hadn't loved the book so much, I'd have dinged it more heavily for that, but as it was I just gritted my teeth a few times and sailed on along this starlit journey through unfamiliar lands. Looking forward to the next book as soon as I can buy it.
This is a wonderful, unique story with a narrator who is appealing, fun, bright but uneducated, and whose backstory makes you ache for him even as you have to admire his spirit. Picadilly is a young gay guttersnipe with a flair for cards, an exploited past, and a willingness to court trouble. When he encounters Milord, a dangerous figure from the stews of the city below, the smart thing would have been to keep his distance. Instead, Picadilly cheats him at cards, setting in motion a chain of events that will lead him to a sexy tormented ex-clergyman with a heart of gold (and the body of a college boxer), a skyship captain of brilliant and shy ambiguity, and a lesbian navigator who sees visions of Kraken.
Some people have had problems with the dialect of the narrator - if you read Regency romances, you should have little trouble with it, related as it is to the slang and thieves' cant that peppers many of those books. (I thank Georgette Heyer for my familiarity with many of the phrases.) If that's not familiar, check a sample. The beginning is a thick as it ever gets. I personally found it smooth and easy reading.
The story has a fast-moving plot and the people in it have relationships of many kinds, equally presented without judgment. The characters are all flawed, and all fascinating. The world-building is satisfying, but not intrusive.
The only reason that I take off 0,05 stars is that I really, really hate narrators who tell you stuff in advance, of the "I would later find out X but right now I was not aware of it..." or "Little did I know then that X..." kind. Well, I really want to NOT be told X either, right then. Several fascinating events were lightly spoilered by this narrative style. If I hadn't loved the book so much, I'd have dinged it more heavily for that, but as it was I just gritted my teeth a few times and sailed on along this starlit journey through unfamiliar lands. Looking forward to the next book as soon as I can buy it.
sylvia_is_reading's review
5.0
I loved everything about this book! Very happy there will be more next year.
ordinarilybi's review
4.0
Diversity-Check: Lasst mich mal sehen … der Protagonist ist bisexuell und Schwarz, zwei wichtige Nebencharaktere sind schwul oder bi/pan (nix Genaues wissmer nich), eine andere Figur entweder lesbisch oder bi/pan, und dann wäre da auch noch Byron Kae als nicht-binäre Person (welche eine chinesische Mutter hatte). Und einen in Regenbogenfarben schillernden Mantel gibt es auch.
Zum Buch:
Lange nichts mehr zum Lachen gehabt? Ich hätte da eventuell was für euch – “Prosperity” von Alexis Hall gehört zwar nicht gerade zur Sparte Comedy, trotzdem hat es mich so manches Mal vor Lachen fast vom Bett gerollt. Der Grund dafür ist vor allem Piccadilly, ein liebreizender Tunichtgut, der – wenn schon nichts anderes – ein recht loses Mundwerk hat. Das gepaart mit seinem (zumindest im Buch) ganz eigenen Dialekt, ergibt ein sehr charmantes Paket zusätzlich zur auch sonst einnehmenden Geschichte.
Dabei kann nicht mal behauptet werden, dass die Charaktere grundsätzlich sympathische Personen wären – mal abgesehen von Byron Kae vielleicht (Pronomen von hier an ist ‘xier’ als genderneutrale Variante). Xier ist einfach ein herzensguter Mensch, was sich in so ziemlich allem zeigt, was xier macht – jeder einzelne andere Charaktere findet bei Byron Kae ein offenes Ohr und Hilfe, während xier mit sich selbst zu hadern scheint (nicht wegen xies Genders, übrigens). Xier ist so ein bisschen der Ruhepol der Geschichte, und das ist bei den anderen Charakteren auch bitter nötig.
Piccadilly mag charmant sein, ist aber auch nicht immer ohne, wenn ich mir manche Szenen so angucke. Die Sexszenen, um genau zu sein. Da hätten wir einmal Voyeurismus, und ein anderes Mal ist er nicht so recht bereit, ein Nein gleich als solches hinzunehmen. Das sind freilich Dämpfer beim sonst so positiven Bild; aber was heißt positiv, sein Geld verdient er meist auf unehrliche Art und Weise, auch wenn er harte Arbeit nicht zwangsläufig scheut. Dazu gehört auch seine größte Aufgabe wohl bisher: lesen lernen, einhergehend mit wunderbar amüsanten Kommentaren über die furchtbar komplizierte Ausdrucksweise einiger Leute.
Die anderen Nebencharaktere sind da ähnlich: Ruben Crowe, Piccadillys love interest, scheint erst mal ein herzensguter Mensch zu sein, ein bisschen langweilig fast, der nur mit seiner Religion immer wieder hadert – und sich seiner Gefühle für einen durchweg schlechten Menschen nicht ganz verwehren kann. Und ja, richtig gehört, der love interest des Hauptcharakters hat auch was für wen anderes übrig. Das mit der Liebe verläuft hier nicht so geradlinig wie sonst, ist aber auch kein klischeehaft-langweiliges Liebesdreieck.
Der schlechte Mensch ist derweil Milord, an dem ich wirklich kein gutes Fünkchen lassen kann, und trotzdem mag ich ihn. Er ist gemein und hinterhältig, und oft ein bisschen feige, aber seine fiese Art hat was. Etwas blass dagegen bleibt leider Miss Grey, die Navigatorin von Byron Kaes Crew, die Drogen nehmen muss, um ihren Job zu erledigen. Die Auftritte, die sie hat, sind klasse, aber ein bisschen mehr hätte zu ihr ruhig kommen können.
Die Charaktere sind auch so ziemlich das Herzstück des Romans, zum Glück. Denn einen roten Faden … nun, es gibt ihn, aber auch nicht so richtig, was aber auch nichts weiter macht. Die Entwicklung der Charaktere ist lesenswert genug! Abgesehen davon ist das Buch für seine Kürze doch recht voll. Luftschiffe sind immer super, Städte in der Luft erst recht, und wenn dann auch noch Kraken im Himmel rumkriechen und Schiffe attackieren, macht das ganz besonders Spaß. Ein Pseudozombie taucht auch auf, und ohnehin ist es alles manchmal ein bisschen viel. Da liest du gerade noch an einer Szene und sie geht so plötzlich zur nächsten über, dass du die Stelle nochmals lesen musst, um zu wissen, was gerade eigentlich passiert ist. (Woher auf einmal eine wandelnde Leiche kommt, zum Beispiel.) Der Vorteil: Es bleibt die ganze Zeit über äußerst spannend.
Was dagegen recht ausführlich abgehandelt wird, sind die Sexszenen. Es sind nur zwei, aber die nehmen ordentlich Platz ein. Was nicht weiter verwunderlich ist, wenn mensch den Verlag bedenkt.
“Carpe fucking diem”, um Piccadilly mal zu zitieren, holt euch das Buch. Möglichst jetzt. Also, sofort. Kann bei akutem Lesetief helfen (wie hier geschehen) und bietet ordentlich Lachmaterial, nicht zu vergessen eine spannende Geschichte, die irgendwie aufhört, wenn’s am schönsten wird. Piccadillys Art zu erzählen wird euch verzaubern (außer ihr seid Sprachpurist_innen und habt was gegen angeblich schlechtes Englisch, denkt euch hier bitte böse Blicke der Linguist_innen dieser Welt), auch wenn es vielleicht ein paar Seiten braucht, um sich daran zu gewöhnen. Und wenn er nicht reicht, ist es spätestens mit dem Auftreten der weiteren Charaktere dahin, die zusammen ein äußerst dynamisches Ensemble ergeben.
Zum Buch:
Lange nichts mehr zum Lachen gehabt? Ich hätte da eventuell was für euch – “Prosperity” von Alexis Hall gehört zwar nicht gerade zur Sparte Comedy, trotzdem hat es mich so manches Mal vor Lachen fast vom Bett gerollt. Der Grund dafür ist vor allem Piccadilly, ein liebreizender Tunichtgut, der – wenn schon nichts anderes – ein recht loses Mundwerk hat. Das gepaart mit seinem (zumindest im Buch) ganz eigenen Dialekt, ergibt ein sehr charmantes Paket zusätzlich zur auch sonst einnehmenden Geschichte.
Dabei kann nicht mal behauptet werden, dass die Charaktere grundsätzlich sympathische Personen wären – mal abgesehen von Byron Kae vielleicht (Pronomen von hier an ist ‘xier’ als genderneutrale Variante). Xier ist einfach ein herzensguter Mensch, was sich in so ziemlich allem zeigt, was xier macht – jeder einzelne andere Charaktere findet bei Byron Kae ein offenes Ohr und Hilfe, während xier mit sich selbst zu hadern scheint (nicht wegen xies Genders, übrigens). Xier ist so ein bisschen der Ruhepol der Geschichte, und das ist bei den anderen Charakteren auch bitter nötig.
Piccadilly mag charmant sein, ist aber auch nicht immer ohne, wenn ich mir manche Szenen so angucke. Die Sexszenen, um genau zu sein. Da hätten wir einmal Voyeurismus, und ein anderes Mal ist er nicht so recht bereit, ein Nein gleich als solches hinzunehmen. Das sind freilich Dämpfer beim sonst so positiven Bild; aber was heißt positiv, sein Geld verdient er meist auf unehrliche Art und Weise, auch wenn er harte Arbeit nicht zwangsläufig scheut. Dazu gehört auch seine größte Aufgabe wohl bisher: lesen lernen, einhergehend mit wunderbar amüsanten Kommentaren über die furchtbar komplizierte Ausdrucksweise einiger Leute.
Die anderen Nebencharaktere sind da ähnlich: Ruben Crowe, Piccadillys love interest, scheint erst mal ein herzensguter Mensch zu sein, ein bisschen langweilig fast, der nur mit seiner Religion immer wieder hadert – und sich seiner Gefühle für einen durchweg schlechten Menschen nicht ganz verwehren kann. Und ja, richtig gehört, der love interest des Hauptcharakters hat auch was für wen anderes übrig. Das mit der Liebe verläuft hier nicht so geradlinig wie sonst, ist aber auch kein klischeehaft-langweiliges Liebesdreieck.
Der schlechte Mensch ist derweil Milord, an dem ich wirklich kein gutes Fünkchen lassen kann, und trotzdem mag ich ihn. Er ist gemein und hinterhältig, und oft ein bisschen feige, aber seine fiese Art hat was. Etwas blass dagegen bleibt leider Miss Grey, die Navigatorin von Byron Kaes Crew, die Drogen nehmen muss, um ihren Job zu erledigen. Die Auftritte, die sie hat, sind klasse, aber ein bisschen mehr hätte zu ihr ruhig kommen können.
Die Charaktere sind auch so ziemlich das Herzstück des Romans, zum Glück. Denn einen roten Faden … nun, es gibt ihn, aber auch nicht so richtig, was aber auch nichts weiter macht. Die Entwicklung der Charaktere ist lesenswert genug! Abgesehen davon ist das Buch für seine Kürze doch recht voll. Luftschiffe sind immer super, Städte in der Luft erst recht, und wenn dann auch noch Kraken im Himmel rumkriechen und Schiffe attackieren, macht das ganz besonders Spaß. Ein Pseudozombie taucht auch auf, und ohnehin ist es alles manchmal ein bisschen viel. Da liest du gerade noch an einer Szene und sie geht so plötzlich zur nächsten über, dass du die Stelle nochmals lesen musst, um zu wissen, was gerade eigentlich passiert ist. (Woher auf einmal eine wandelnde Leiche kommt, zum Beispiel.) Der Vorteil: Es bleibt die ganze Zeit über äußerst spannend.
Was dagegen recht ausführlich abgehandelt wird, sind die Sexszenen. Es sind nur zwei, aber die nehmen ordentlich Platz ein. Was nicht weiter verwunderlich ist, wenn mensch den Verlag bedenkt.
“Carpe fucking diem”, um Piccadilly mal zu zitieren, holt euch das Buch. Möglichst jetzt. Also, sofort. Kann bei akutem Lesetief helfen (wie hier geschehen) und bietet ordentlich Lachmaterial, nicht zu vergessen eine spannende Geschichte, die irgendwie aufhört, wenn’s am schönsten wird. Piccadillys Art zu erzählen wird euch verzaubern (außer ihr seid Sprachpurist_innen und habt was gegen angeblich schlechtes Englisch, denkt euch hier bitte böse Blicke der Linguist_innen dieser Welt), auch wenn es vielleicht ein paar Seiten braucht, um sich daran zu gewöhnen. Und wenn er nicht reicht, ist es spätestens mit dem Auftreten der weiteren Charaktere dahin, die zusammen ein äußerst dynamisches Ensemble ergeben.
ajcousins's review
Having just written an incredibly sappy fangirling email to Alexis Hall (which may have included the sentence "You make me want to be a better writer", just to send all of the diabetics into a sugar coma), I'm stopping in here at GR just to say: HOLY CRAP, THIS BOOK IS BRILLIANT.
I know there are people who are put off by, or have hesitated to start this book, because it's written in cant. No one book will work for everyone & that's okay! But if you have been hesitating despite generally desiring to read books by Alexis, I highly encourage you to give it a go. My delight in the wordplay in Prosperity knows no bounds, but it is the characters who will stay with me forever. It's the moral complexity and the heartbreak and the beauty that will bring me back to this universe again and again.
Also, I found my own adoration of Wilkie Collins matched in Picadilly's, so now I love him extra hard. :)
"When we was done with Oliver Twist--which I thought started pretty promising but ended with a real disappointment--they found me sommat by this cove Wilkie Collins who should give Mr. Dickens some lessons in writing a good story, cos we're reading a serialized thing called The Woman in White, and it's fucking awesome. For serious."
I love how this books ends. It makes me happy. (I don't know if this quote is really a spoiler, but better safe than sorry.)
'Tis enough to feel Shadowless, and see the sky, and know that Byron Kae is waiting."
Indeed, it is enough.
I know there are people who are put off by, or have hesitated to start this book, because it's written in cant. No one book will work for everyone & that's okay! But if you have been hesitating despite generally desiring to read books by Alexis, I highly encourage you to give it a go. My delight in the wordplay in Prosperity knows no bounds, but it is the characters who will stay with me forever. It's the moral complexity and the heartbreak and the beauty that will bring me back to this universe again and again.
Also, I found my own adoration of Wilkie Collins matched in Picadilly's, so now I love him extra hard. :)
"When we was done with Oliver Twist--which I thought started pretty promising but ended with a real disappointment--they found me sommat by this cove Wilkie Collins who should give Mr. Dickens some lessons in writing a good story, cos we're reading a serialized thing called The Woman in White, and it's fucking awesome. For serious."
I love how this books ends. It makes me happy. (I don't know if this quote is really a spoiler, but better safe than sorry.)
Spoiler
"I don't mind the not knowing cos there's such a lot of it that it don't seem worth getting fussed over.'Tis enough to feel Shadowless, and see the sky, and know that Byron Kae is waiting."
Indeed, it is enough.
see_sadie_read's review
5.0
Honestly, I'm not normally what people might refer to as a gusher, but this book is LUSH! There are moments of such painful poignancy that I literally found myself momentarily devoid of reason.
It's not perfect. It took me a long time to get comfortable with Piccadilly's dialect and at times I thought it was overplayed. I really wanted to see Byron Kae's happily ever after and there is a lot of empty space between the bits we know about the characters. But it's close enough for jazz.
What it is that I love so much about this book isn't necessarily the aetherpunk or krakens or action. It's not the romance (if that's the word for it), though that's wonderful. It isn't even directly the characters themselves, though they're worship-worthy. It's the brutal honesty of those same characters' fragility. Yes, I know, it's an oxymoron. But read the book; you'll understand.
The mixed up crew of the Shadowless inhabit a world in which they won't allow themselves the comforting self-deceptions we all so often clothe ourselves in. What would life without your mask feel like? As a result these same miscreants sometimes ring with peals of emotions so pure they put me in mind of crystal bells wrung by aery angels draped in the gossamer threads of God's tears...or some such bollox. You get the point. I felt for these characters. And you see fairly early on that whatever happily ever after they may get aren't the ones they want. But you root for them anyway.
Now, the whole thing isn't to be taken too seriously, 'cause the book is also damned funny in an occasionally dry, very British way. But it's self-aware enough to play with the expectation it builds in the reader, slipping punchlines in unexpectedly. Not often, or not often enough to be predictable, but there all the same.
Goodreads says that this is the 205th book I've read this year and this is probably one of, if not my absolute, favourites. It wasn't at all what I expected and I'm so glad for that. Go read it right now!
It's not perfect. It took me a long time to get comfortable with Piccadilly's dialect and at times I thought it was overplayed. I really wanted to see Byron Kae's happily ever after and there is a lot of empty space between the bits we know about the characters. But it's close enough for jazz.
What it is that I love so much about this book isn't necessarily the aetherpunk or krakens or action. It's not the romance (if that's the word for it), though that's wonderful. It isn't even directly the characters themselves, though they're worship-worthy. It's the brutal honesty of those same characters' fragility. Yes, I know, it's an oxymoron. But read the book; you'll understand.
The mixed up crew of the Shadowless inhabit a world in which they won't allow themselves the comforting self-deceptions we all so often clothe ourselves in. What would life without your mask feel like? As a result these same miscreants sometimes ring with peals of emotions so pure they put me in mind of crystal bells wrung by aery angels draped in the gossamer threads of God's tears...or some such bollox. You get the point. I felt for these characters. And you see fairly early on that whatever happily ever after they may get aren't the ones they want. But you root for them anyway.
Now, the whole thing isn't to be taken too seriously, 'cause the book is also damned funny in an occasionally dry, very British way. But it's self-aware enough to play with the expectation it builds in the reader, slipping punchlines in unexpectedly. Not often, or not often enough to be predictable, but there all the same.
Goodreads says that this is the 205th book I've read this year and this is probably one of, if not my absolute, favourites. It wasn't at all what I expected and I'm so glad for that. Go read it right now!
dobbsthedog's review
5.0
Reread April 2022 via audio, Byron Kae gets all the stars and is all the stars and is of all the stars. ✨
Wow, doing this book as audio definitely gave it a different feel. Nicholas Boulton, is there anything you can’t narrate??? He really got the thieves cant down, it was so well done!
My feelings on our dear narrator, one Piccadilly, lately of the sky town Prosperity, are sommat changed. In my initial reading of this I found him rather annoying, but he’s definitely grown on me. Maybe that’s from having read Liberty, maybe it’s from listening to the audiobook, I don’t really know. Though Byron Kae is still my favourite, with Milord not far behind.
This book is an absolute delight and I look forward to many more rereads.
_____
Oh, I so enjoyed this book! I may have been slightly pressured into purchasing/reading it, but I’m glad I was.
I haven’t read a lot of steampunk (in fact, I think I’ve read 3 steampunk novels prior to this), but this was great. I really loved all the main characters, especially Byron Kae, and also Milord, which I feel a bit weird about because he’s obviously supposed to be the grey-area character, and he’s pretty awful for most of the book, but I really liked him anyway? I honestly found Dil to be a bit obnoxious… I mean, I still liked him and all, he was just a bit obnoxious.
I’m not sure what this book is categorized as, but as AJH’s books are usually romance, maybe that? Though I would say it’s much more adventure with a splash of romance. Maybe not even romance, but adventure with several fairly detailed sex scenes? Whatever it is, it worked, I loved it. I’m looking forward to reading more Prosperity stories!
Wow, doing this book as audio definitely gave it a different feel. Nicholas Boulton, is there anything you can’t narrate??? He really got the thieves cant down, it was so well done!
My feelings on our dear narrator, one Piccadilly, lately of the sky town Prosperity, are sommat changed. In my initial reading of this I found him rather annoying, but he’s definitely grown on me. Maybe that’s from having read Liberty, maybe it’s from listening to the audiobook, I don’t really know. Though Byron Kae is still my favourite, with Milord not far behind.
This book is an absolute delight and I look forward to many more rereads.
_____
Oh, I so enjoyed this book! I may have been slightly pressured into purchasing/reading it, but I’m glad I was.
I haven’t read a lot of steampunk (in fact, I think I’ve read 3 steampunk novels prior to this), but this was great. I really loved all the main characters, especially Byron Kae, and also Milord, which I feel a bit weird about because he’s obviously supposed to be the grey-area character, and he’s pretty awful for most of the book, but I really liked him anyway? I honestly found Dil to be a bit obnoxious… I mean, I still liked him and all, he was just a bit obnoxious.
I’m not sure what this book is categorized as, but as AJH’s books are usually romance, maybe that? Though I would say it’s much more adventure with a splash of romance. Maybe not even romance, but adventure with several fairly detailed sex scenes? Whatever it is, it worked, I loved it. I’m looking forward to reading more Prosperity stories!
prgchrqltma's review
5.0
So interesting! Steampunk world building, interesting characters all on a journey on a skymining ship. I'm glad there are more stories set in this world, since this book seems like a giant middle section that could use some background and resolution.
aprillen's review
4.0
Steampunk AU lgbtq adventure with lovecraftian elements. I dither between 3 and 4 stars on this one. Looking at other reviews, it seems like people either totally adore it or they DNF it, which is probably mostly due to the language -- it is rife with slang, dialect and cant, which can be pretty daunting to non-native and native speakers alike. I've been reading in English for over forty years, and I had some difficulties, because the words I stumbled on are not to be found in my fairly extensive dictionaries, and had to be guessed by context, which, it should be said, wasn't all that hard if I applied myself... I'm just not used to having to do that.
That said, I felt there were some inconsistencies in the language used. The narrator, a guttersnipe from the stews with very little learning, compounded by dyslexia, still uses references and words that seem out of character, however much Oliver Twist he has read during the events of this book. Possibly we are supposed to understand that he has potential, but literary allusions are pretty unbelievable. It's a first-person narration, which is pretty hard to do for this type of character, and it's mostly very well done, but the discrepancies nagged at me. They were most noticeable in the first part of the book.
The narration is somewhat disjointed and jumps about a lot. Again, this is most noticeable in the first part of the book, and could be attributed to the FP narration, but it made it harder to get into. The characters are vivid and colourful, but not very deep, except for the narrator, who is pretty transparent from the beginning, and comes across as a likeable young rogue who may not be honest in his dealings with the world, but is honest to a fault when it comes to himself, and has retained a heart and a basically cheerful outlook despite his privations in life. Don't get me wrong -- the other characters are fascinating and cool and larger than life, but that was sort of all they were. I'm told that there are a number of extra stories that supposedly explore these characters more in depth, but the problem for me is that I don't feel engaged enough to seek those stories out. (They also felt sort of like Wild West characters, though this is set in AU Britain.)
It's a pretty sexy story with elements of romance, but it's not a traditional romance with a HEA. Sadly, I don't personally find prostitution sexy, which I think I was supposed to. Yes, I know there is a difference between voluntary sex work and trafficking, but a lot of the time the latter is glossed over or presented as the former, and I still don't find it sexy, sorry.
All in all, an original adventure story with great diversity and representation, and ambitious use of language and narration, with likeable although somewhat clichéd secondary characters and well-executed but somewhat derivative world-building. The great strength is the first-person narrator, who is honest, likeable and credible, but the narration itself is also the challenging part.
That said, I felt there were some inconsistencies in the language used. The narrator, a guttersnipe from the stews with very little learning, compounded by dyslexia, still uses references and words that seem out of character, however much Oliver Twist he has read during the events of this book. Possibly we are supposed to understand that he has potential, but literary allusions are pretty unbelievable. It's a first-person narration, which is pretty hard to do for this type of character, and it's mostly very well done, but the discrepancies nagged at me. They were most noticeable in the first part of the book.
The narration is somewhat disjointed and jumps about a lot. Again, this is most noticeable in the first part of the book, and could be attributed to the FP narration, but it made it harder to get into. The characters are vivid and colourful, but not very deep, except for the narrator, who is pretty transparent from the beginning, and comes across as a likeable young rogue who may not be honest in his dealings with the world, but is honest to a fault when it comes to himself, and has retained a heart and a basically cheerful outlook despite his privations in life. Don't get me wrong -- the other characters are fascinating and cool and larger than life, but that was sort of all they were. I'm told that there are a number of extra stories that supposedly explore these characters more in depth, but the problem for me is that I don't feel engaged enough to seek those stories out. (They also felt sort of like Wild West characters, though this is set in AU Britain.)
It's a pretty sexy story with elements of romance, but it's not a traditional romance with a HEA. Sadly, I don't personally find prostitution sexy, which I think I was supposed to. Yes, I know there is a difference between voluntary sex work and trafficking, but a lot of the time the latter is glossed over or presented as the former, and I still don't find it sexy, sorry.
All in all, an original adventure story with great diversity and representation, and ambitious use of language and narration, with likeable although somewhat clichéd secondary characters and well-executed but somewhat derivative world-building. The great strength is the first-person narrator, who is honest, likeable and credible, but the narration itself is also the challenging part.