A review by eacolgan
Devices and Desires by K.J. Parker

2.0

i was intrigued by the premise of this book, and really excited to get my hands on it finally. however once i'd begun i found that the story was slow moving, and bogged down by a lot of meandering description. the author was clearly drawing many parallels between the strictures of the mechanical guild and the rules by which the various societies lived, but it was clunky and overworked, and after a while got rather boring. chapters from the POV of random throwaway characters took me out of the story, and ultimately there were only three of the main characters whose storylines i cared about. i won't be finishing this trilogy, sadly; it's based on a great idea, but ultimately not worth the time it would take to work through it.