41% completed, and the promises or hints set early in the book have been swept aside, and instead we read about a bureaucrat slowly gaining power and changing the world for the better.

That sounds great and all, but this isn't the book for me. I don't think it ever will be – I read a review that described it as the book for people who loved The Goblin Emperor, but want 600 pages of that... And given I've tried The Goblin Emperor several times now without further love, I feel safe to put this aside.