I am glad Naomi Novik remembered how to write a novel rather than a worldbuilding essay in time for the third book. And I am glad I stuck with the series. While the first and second books explained their fictional world at length, we finally get to explore it. We literally travel around the world and really get to the bottom of it, each revelation more disturbing than the last.

El's snarky narrative voice is at its best in this book, and I found her character growth convincing, especially regarding her growing appreciation of her mother's choices.

Enough has been said about the political allegory - it is clever and terrifyingly true.