The King's English by Kingsley Amis

The Mission Song by John Le Carre

The Court of the Air by Stephen Hunt

This novel has a little of everything, steampunk, voodoo, Aztec like cultures, cthulhu style gods, robots, bizarre species, Dickensian pastiche. It's long on world building and exposition but a little sort on character development or plot.

I enjoyed the first half but then felt the author had become too enamoured of his own creation and wished to show us every nook and cranny of his fertile imagination.

Tighter editing (a number of scenes are entirely unnecessary) and a more focused plot would have made for a more enjoyable read. The final part feel interminable. I hope his next novel The Kingdom Beyond the Waves addresses some of these issues. I'll certainly give it a read but won't be rushing out to buy it.