A solid, plot driven read which doesn’t hold back on anything. The aesthetic of the setting was well established, and not at all cliché or overdone (in fact it’s one of the few examples i’ve seen of steampunk done well). The plot was nonstop, but this came with a mild lack of character development, which nonetheless comes with the genre. ‘Books for teenage boys’ are so often focused on substantial action and movement that they do sacrifice some character development, but considering I am neither a boy nor a teenager (anymore), I can forgive Philip Reeve for this minor offence, as the book was clearly not written for me, categorically speaking.
The ending was mildly gratuitous, but it was better than a happily-ever-after alternative would have been.
Over all, a solid book that I would recommend to anybody between the ages of, maybe, 12-16.