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Interesting subversion of certain tropes and well crafted telegraphing. It didn't hit quite right for me, probably because I'm currently in an argument with the "special boy/girl" model of fantasy.

While this one is still a "special boy/girl" sci-fantasy, I did like the constant edging of foreshadowing betrayal immediately followed by descriptions of how nice a character is. In fact, when a significant betrayal did come, I didn't believe it and more than halfway expect to find it reversed later on the series. The ratio of fantasy to sci-fi felt weird to me but I couldn't say why.

Iron Widow is a sci-fantasy story that incorporates various genre tropes, but they are covered in a fresh and interesting skin. I appreciated that certain recognizable beats were, at least so far in the story, subverted or not followed through. Despite that, and probably for personal reasons rather that book-related ones, I was not invested and didn't have that anxiety and delight that I feel with the best stories.

I'm glad I read this. The ENIAC 6 deserve more respect and more awareness of how much they brought to programming. I expected the quiet sexism of having their work accepted but not their value as people. I wasn't expecting modern jackasses to try to erase their contributions and deny their importance.

Slow creeping weirdness with a hectic ending. I'm looking forward to the next one.

Nicely different. I hope there will be sequels.