The Atrocity Archives shovels jargon down your throat in a race to the finish. It is both serious and sardonic -- horror and humour -- to the point where it brushes past cosmic horror to focus on the mechanism of mathemagics. It is Doctor Who by way of Brandon Sanderson.
These concepts are the star of the book. Characters are a little one-note, and most dialogue is for exposition rather than characterization. But the ideas presented, and especially how those ideas are brought to their logical ends, are excellent.
I look forward to seeing where this series goes.