Natasha Pulley's writing is characterized by four things, in my mind, which have until now combined to make her an auto-buy and even an auto-pre-order for me:

1. An elegant fantasy conceit
2. Exquisite, beautiful, evocative images
3. Queer romance, expressed with a very light touch
4. An unhurried, restful narrative style

This book only displayed about one and a half of these characteristics. There is a queer romance--although it is much more explicit than usual*--and the narrative style is so engrossing that I read this entire book in a single day. But the first two characteristics are entirely absent. This is purely historical fiction, with not a hint of fantasy about it (which makes me feel a bit silly, since my SFF book group is reading it on my recommendation) and perhaps because of that, there are none of those images that made The Bedlam Stacks and The Lost Future of Pepperharrow so beautiful. I noticed that they were sparser in her most recent book but one, The Kingdoms, but that at least satisfied the other three characteristics, and did have a couple of lovely images. But this lacked even that much.

So, athough I gobbled this book down in a single day, I found myself disappointed. It was not what I was looking for in a Natasha Pulley book.

Also the final bit at the end felt a little bit forced in its attempt to acknowledge what the Soviet Union did well in comparison to Britain. I don't disagree with the claim; it just felt forced and somehow tacked on. Not justified by the narrative.

*I hasten to add that 'explicit' means 'the characters kiss on the page, rather than look at each other longingly and then appear the next morning in pyjamas'