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Okay, here we go -- here's the Zelzany / China Mieville "many londons" with magic, here's the protagonist with a mysterious past who is actually a prince, only a little mopey and whiny... and here's the beautiful 19 year old common thief who wants to be a pirate, and also sneak into a ball and play dress up who is clearly a Mary Sue character stand in and ends up doing all of those things and who captures the protagonist's interest despite not being magical... or is she???

It's not 50 Shades of Grey, but unfortunately the plot felt like it was very manufactured to keep these two together and dependent on each other. And I didn't like them. And it's... not clever? Compared to Mievelle or Susanna Clarke, the "magic" here is a dim wish-fulfillment construct and the world doesn't breathe on its own -- notably, the scenes without the two main characters are stilted. It's not bad, but it's filler.

I wanted to like this book far more than I actually did -- imagine Greg Bear's Blood Music crossed with M. John Harrison's decaying Viriconium. Everyone lives in giant living ships, and the ships are dying.

Unfortunately, that's far as I got. The characters, Zan and Jayd, are theoretically in love, theoretically have a plan, theoretically make good decisions in order to get to this point. And yet... they make decisions that make no sense -- from attacking a ship for the Nth time that has beaten off their attacks without a sweat, to the amnesia (and the ridiculous justification for it) to the pointless extended roadtrip in the middle.

I wanted sensible people. I wanted hard headed politicians. I wanted thought. But this isn't a book that relies on thought -- the ultimate rationale and goals are based on feelings, wants, and drives, and there isn't much room for the characters to not feel about something.