I've loved R.B. Lemberg's Birdverse stories, so I went into this expecting to like it; and like it I did, very much. Deep worldbuilding and immersive prose, and a sort of pacing that just lets me breathe, and settle a little bit deeper in with every breath. And the characters, and the world, and the way it highlights beauty in everything while simultaneously acknowledging pain and drudgery and horrors, and...

If you're not familiar with Birdverse, that's no reason to hold off on this. If anything, it errs on the side of too much explanation, and it (and Birdverse stories in general) are not written with a rigid reading chronology in mind.

Selling points: worldbuilding; magic system; immersive prose; both protagonists are trans; both protagonists are in their sixties; nonbinary rep; two trans elders defeating a dictator through art.

Warnings: transmisia (not in the narrative, but in characters), including deadnaming and misgendering.