Honestly, I read the book 2 years ago. I rarely review books when I read them, but this book I took the time to write one.

Like I said, the academic linguistics side of this was fascinating. I still refer back to the lesson on translation the word ciao and how complex one word is. Before you even get to tone, content, sentence structure or any of the other complexities of language.

The magic side of it felt shoehorned into the book to make writing a conclusion easier. As you read it, imagine removing the magic and the plot is guided by less arcane happenings. How much could happen with just the bureaucracy, imperialism and capitalism?

Let alone… this is a world with literal magic. And history happened exactly as the real world? No difference except shellfish at a ball in the 1800s