This is not an easy book to review. It took me more than a month to finish. I am deducing one star from the rating because I didn't always enjoy reading it, and sometimes had a hard time keeping going. But despite the lack in entertainment value I still think this is a good book. Let me explain why you should read it.

The book is set in a steampunk future Bangkok. The world economy has collapsed under the weight of climate change that has raised sea levels so much that Bangkok can only survive through high sea walls. Fossil fuels are as good as gone from the world. And as if that wasn't enough, rampant genetic manipulations of Monsanto style corporations called the "calorie companies" have caused a widespread collapse of ecological systems all over the world. Several genetic plagues have decimated mankind as well as eradicated innumerable other species. The world has switched from an "expansion" to a "contraction" where traveling between continents is once more a dangerous undertaking. Wind-up springs provide energy storage, and lamps are lit by highly taxed methane. It's dark vision of a future that seems entirely plausible. Thai culture is wound tightly into the story everywhere even though the country has changed from the open kingdom of smiles to a protectionist state trying to stay afloat against the odds (as far as I can see the author seems to know what he's doing with Thai culture and Bangkok).

We are presented with a wide range of viewpoints none of which I want to call a protagonist. All of them have their own goals, which clash and align throughout the book.

There's the old Chinese refugee Hock Seng from Malaya who barely escaped a massacre and is always trying to advance again to some semblance of his old status. There is Anderson Lake the representative of one of the calorie companies which is trying to find the fabled Thai seed-bank. There is Jaidee, the Tiger of Bangkok, ex-Muay-Thai champion and captain of the White Shirts, soldiers working for the Environment ministry, whose job it is to protect the Thai from the genetic plagues, and who want all farang gone from the city. And there's of course Emiko, the Japanese manufactured windup girl who was left in Bangkok by her owner to fend for herself in an environment hostile to so-called "new people".

The world is fascinating, new, and written with great attention to detail and much knowledge of Bangkok (at least to a one-time visitor like myself). The characters, and their motivations are believable if not always sympathetic. I believe one of my problems was that I didn't warm to any of them. Major: It didn't help at all that Jaidee turned into a ghost half-way through, even though that's a pretty cool twist, I could identify even less with Kanya the double-agent. It's great for the plot, but it doesn't make the book easier to read.

For the longest time I had no idea what direction the plot was taking. There are too many turns and twists, and only around two thirds of the book is the path toward a possible ending revealed.

You should read this book, because it is well written, well-plotted, complex, with a seriously cool setting. But it is also heavy reading that one needs to have time for. Stopping for another book to read in between is not recommended. Take it on a vacation to South-East Asia and enjoy!