A brilliant and beautiful book. You can trust Professor Benford to make you feel the rivets, and the departmental in-fighting. I found two moments of transcendent awe near the end - the kind of things that remind me why I read Science Fiction. The book has a straight-line plot. The author's style is simple and straight forward.
Characterization focuses on one or a few female characters.
The hero is an anonymous young folker, scrambling to stay alive on the streets of a dying city. Suddenly, he finds himself thrust into a world of sinister magic, and into the path of the satanic regent who rules it. His only salvation is to return from the dead. The book has a straight-line plot. The author's style is simple and straight forward.