Second book in K.J. Parker’s Engineer Trilogy, and it’s excellent. I’m already about a third through the third book, The Escapement, and it’s all I can do not to drop everything until it’s finished. I’m going to be rereading these ones.
At least, I hope I will. Thing about putting all these books on hold at the library the way I’ve been doing, it cuts into my rereading. I’ve got a lot of books on my shelves that I kinda miss and would like to revisit, but there’s just no time with this steady stream of new books always coming in. I grant you that, as problems go, this is probably the best one to have.