ambyr

Sharp and refined, the dialog crisp, the characterizations and motivations precisely sketched, the plot an intricately interlocked mechanism. The first book leaves the reader with only a vague idea of how that mechanism is constructed--we know what the Rube Goldberg machine will do, but can't begin to guess at all the gears and wires and balances that propel it on its way--but with a clear sense that it's all lurking just off-stage, complete in every detail and ready to be unveiled. And yet there's the faintest hint, after the first book, that the wires may not be laid quite right, that everything is too perfect, that something, sooner or later, will need to snap.