The difficulty in discussing a very original book is that that the vocabulary to describe it is missing. I spent a lot of the time I was reading this trying to figure out who to compare it to. In my updates, you'll see a couple of stabs at it, but I'm going with:

[a:Iain M. Banks|5807106|Iain M. Banks|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/authors/1352410520p2/5807106.jpg] and [a:Gene Wolfe|23069|Gene Wolfe|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/authors/1207670073p2/23069.jpg] and Maybe [a:Jo Walton|107170|Jo Walton|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/authors/1353809579p2/107170.jpg] write the Foundation Trilogy. But with pinch of [b:The Vampire Lestat|43814|The Vampire Lestat (The Vampire Chronicles, #2)|Anne Rice|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1347515742s/43814.jpg|3241580].

This doesn't really give you a solid idea what it's like, but it's about as clear as I can get.

This book was not, quite, as they say on the internet, a wild ride from start to finish, but I never managed to know what to expect from it. It kept on becoming something else as I read it.

I also do not know if I enjoyed it, which is a very strange thing not to know about a book you have read. For one thing, this book's interest in Voltaire outstripped mine right out of the gate, as did its interest in the approximately thirty-eight other enlightenment thinkers who were regularly made reference to. The book also, I think, is quite uninterested in giving you characters to like; almost all the characters eventually reveal themselves to have ugly flaws.

There is a twist at the half-way point that I feel might be quite upsetting to some people, and I think the book is committed to it, rather than doing it for shock-value, so I am trying to preserve the surprise, but [triggers: rape/torture] a character you have been empathizing with turns out to have been responsible for some horrific atrocities, which are referred to fairly offhandedly.

The thing I came closest to enjoying was the world-building, but even that was a wild ride. I began thinking I was exploring a utopia, quickly became mired in petty and comprehensive politics, and then plunged into the realization that no one in this world is suited to raise children.

Then the story ends as the first half of a duology, leaving me confused and disoriented. Okay!

Recommended if Iain M. Banks or Gene Wolfe are your idea of a good time, or if you've ever said to yourself, "I would like this SF more if it were 20% enlightenment philosophers by weight."