Very pleasurable escapist fantasy novel. Good characters, good political milieu. And a fun and intricate magic system. All works together for a pretty solid book. OTOH, the writing is a bit too young-adulty for me, I was hungering for a more mature story. And the magic system is great fun but basically reads like a video game, or movie action sequences, which is entertaining but makes for a strange sort of writing. Minor complaints, though. The main character Vin is pretty great. I like stories that are equal parts street thievery, magic, and ballroom parties.