The Alchemists of Loom

I really wavered between giving this 3 and 4 stars, but I ultimately settled for 4, because I think by the end the book had built up to a point where my enjoyment of its strengths outweighed the issues I was having with it.

Alchemists of Loom is a pretty fun adventure, all things considered. There are three main characters of interest - Arianna, professional badass thief and saboteur; Cvareh, a fugitive sky-person ("Dragon") looking to overthrow the king of his own people; and Florence, Arianna's best friend and student and possibly one of the most adorable sidekicks I've read about in a while.

The whole story is essentially a flight across the gloomy world of Loom in order to deliver Cvareh to a resistance group, and I'll admit that at first I didn't really feel grabbed by what was happening. But over time the three characters start to form a really solid dynamic, and by the end of the book by far the best thing about it is watching these three get along, something surprisingly well and sometimes with a great deal of difficulty. These three are a great trio, and I loved reading about their evolving dispositions towards one another and the tantalizing hints of romance that develop.

The world itself is a bit of an odd one. It has a steampunk/dungeonpunk feel to it, with huge social stratification between the two species, the Dragons (who read mostly like evil elves) living on splendid islands in the sky, and the Fenthri, grey-skinned people who live below on the harsh and rocky ground. I really enjoyed the magical-technology angle, and the fact that magic was largely driven by a grey-market organ trade was wild. I did get tripped up on a lot of the names, though - the worlds are called Nova and Loom, there are cities with names like Ter.5.2 (this is explained in the novel, but still), and in general the terminology made me frown a lot, for reasons I can't quite figure out. I also felt that the oppressive presence of the Dragons on Loom wasn't really explored so much as explained; essentially all the Dragons we encounter on Loom are chasing Cvareh, so their presence beyond that isn't felt as much as it could have.

There were some writing quirks that grated on me too. There was a fair amount of linguistic repetition (Arianna is referred to as "the woman" way more often than felt natural), some awkward phrasing here or there, and some word choices that seem like either typos or very strange formulations. There were a few scenes or characters or dialog choices that seemed out of place too; I occasionally felt like the things that were happening or being said were for show rather than a natural outgrowth of the situation, and that kind of melodrama didn't always gel with the rest of the story.

These were more of an issue at the start of the book, though - by the end, I was overlooking that in favour of concentrating on the three protagonists and their great dynamic, and ended up quite enjoying the book overall, despite its occasional stumbles.