Second read through: quite excellent. Better the second time around!

Something I hadn't remembered from the first read is the cool background on the title of the book, specifically this quote about free-will roughly 2/3 through the book:

"No matter what we did, her visions happened anyway. Future events can be set in stone. Where is your free will in that?"

Yongcheow folded careful hands over his belly. "But in those cases, you did do something, didn't you? You went to find the new Head Abbot. Your mother's purging Machinists. Some things might be fixed, but everything around then can be changed. That's the part that counts."

"A test. That's the Obedient belief, isn't it? Everything is a test from the heavens."

A considered silence shimmered. Then Yongcheow spoke. "The saying goes, 'The black tides of heaven direct the courses of human lives.' To which a wise teacher said, 'But as with all waters, one can swim against the tide.'"