This is a funny, silly and whimsical book. If you read the parasol protectorate books you'll feel somewhat at home, but it's sillier book and you might be surprised at how much moving a few decades back matters to technology and society. Some of the technology of the other books is just recently developed, and so are some of the characters, but I won't mention who or how many.

I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.