Excellent writing, with some genuinely funny lines scattered throughout. The story meanders at times and some plot lines could have been merged for brevity's sake (not unusual for first novels), but overall the pages kept turning. I was expecting certain scenes that simply never materialized, which was disappointing. Presents itself as a historical reference, so often the narrative is overly dry and toned down, uncommon for a story about magic (Harry P this is not). From me a solid 3.5, but since that's not an option, I'll round up out of utmost love for Clarke's second novel, Piranesi.