I really enjoyed this book! It starts off pretty slow in order to set up a lot of background and world building, which I understand is not everyone's cup of tea, but I really enjoyed seeing the day to day life and interactions and the small fractures in the characters' relationships before things really start going off the rails. My main complaints are that it occasionally became a bit dense and academic and sometimes a bit much to read through. I also wasn't a huge fan of the interludes of the other character's pov/history, which I guess just kinda feel like cheating to me idk.
The magic system was indeed very fleshed out in terms of the rules and materials for activation but felt somewhat random when it came to devising specific spells/results, which wasn't my favorite. I also feel like it became kind of hand wavy about how much they could use/reuse some bars.
In terms of plot, I really liked the way it developed! It was definitely not quite as hopeful as I would have liked, and it became a little bit preachy in some cases (especially when it felt a little too real), but overall I enjoyed reading it. I was hoping for a bit more epilogue material to see the public/parliament's reaction to the tower's collapse. I am still thinking about the message it tells about revolution and tactics and the moral arguments, but as a book, I really enjoyed the writing, plot, and characters.