I struggle between four and five on this. As a reader, I really don't like first person stories, and I don't like reading a lot of dialect... and Karen Memory is a first person narrative written in dialect. Those two aspects predispose me against any story, but I still think this is a very worthwhile read for the most part. Even in the face of my prejudices for the chosen form, the narrator's dialect adds useful flavor and is still navigable enough that it didn't hinder my experience, which strikes me as a noteworthy achievement in itself.

The characters are brilliantly rendered, each seeming worthy of leading the novel themselves. Karen Memory's character and perspective are rich and engaging, and her coterie of fellow 'seamstresses' and allied tradespeople are a beautiful tapestry of distinct personalities. That is the reason to read the book, and I daresay reason enough to enjoy it. I am also an enormous fan of the wild west lawman Bass Reeves, and was delighted to discover he not only features prominently in the narrative, but that he also felt very true-to-life.

I feel poorly listing reservations with such a well-written book, but there were two issues that somewhat muted what was otherwise a delightful read. With so much art displayed in creating Karen Memory's social sphere, that brilliance frequently cut against the experience as well, because sometimes I felt the narrator we were tied to was the least interesting person in a scene, often feeling like the story's Doctor Watson rather than its title character. For most of the book, she is merely there for the ride, and while that left events feeling more realistically biographical, the requirements of that verisimilitude detract somewhat from the drama.

The second issue also stems from that narrative style - Karen Memory understands her world, and so she wastes little effort in describing it to us. Apparently she lives in a world of air ships, and rocket-packs, and sewing-machine-mecha. Mesmerism is a thing, but other magic and mysticism's practicality is unclear. It's in America, but in a fictional America, and just how close it sits to the real world is never made abundantly clear by the narrative. As a result, some of the big plot points are obfuscated by euphemisms the reader simply had no way to access, and the world never resolves into as sharp a focus as I would prefer.

Which feels silly to list. Perhaps it is best to say that the book is good enough that I feel I have to defend a less than perfect score.

This book is worth reading because Karen Memory and her friends are worth knowing. Seeing what bits of her world she sees, and experiencing what she experiences are worth doing.