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This is the book I've been looking for this year, a hopeful story for the agents of public good that doesn't gloss over the work, time, and compromises involved in bending the arc of history, or deux-ex-machina away the forces of greed. Fantastic read, validates all the positive press.

I burned through this more quickly than any book I've read in months. It's a hard, unflinching look at the sins of colonialism and income inequality, and definitely hit my "I work in tech, I just want to solve fun puzzles and enjoy my comfortable life without thinking about what my work does" buttons in painful places.

As a fantasy noir detective story, demands comparison to Butcher's Dresden Files, and I think looks good by comparison. I was able to pre-guess some of the twists of the mystery, but none of the key reveals. Noir-standard ogeling of pretty girls, but comes off classier with a female protagonist and nonbinary author than when both are male (I also think Polk manages a bit more grace than Butcher here, though). "Favourite book of the year" is trivial when it's my first read of '23, but I liked it better than most of what I read last fall -- highly recommend this book (as well as Polk's other work, they do a consistently excellent job with their fantasy worldbuilding as well as their romance).