seekingferret | (Reply)

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I have varying degrees of agreement with each of your points here; however, with your last paragraph I have nothing but enthusiastic agreement. It's a particularly fine facet of Addison's worldbuilding, I think, that the book is simultaneously convincing at establishing a great big non-homogenous world, and applies that same enthusiasm for potential and detail to the everyday world our hero lives in. I loved the cabinet meetings. I loved everything about the layers of interaction with the opera singer (I keep thinking her name is Min, which is utterly unhelpful, as Min is a title). And yes: in large organisations, people want to keep doing the things they are doing, for simplicity and purpose and stability, and I loved that the plot relied on that.

The complaint people have about the book is also its greatest virtue- it is a warm-hearted novel about finding people you can trust and building something together, and even though at times it looks like it's going to be full of courtly intrigue and betrayals, there are no surprising revelations of treachery.

What did you think of that very late, clumsy stabbing attempt? I wasn't so impressed by it.

a story about a group of friends working together to figure out how government works

Hm. Maia was trying to figure out how government worked, but his personal network felt, to me, far too fragile to be called 'friends'.