Loved it even more rereading, as I could see what everything was building up to. For a story that was about a boat getting from one side of a sea to the other, there was a lot going on. I can't say if I want to talk about specific plots because spoilers, but the romance subplot was great, leading to my two favourite scenes in the series.

I love all the little beats and call backs, like the two iron age warriors running into a portrait of the main characters from the first novel, and having a completely different take on it.

Tremaine seriously is the best hero (well, probably not the best to be around, but the best to read about). She has this combination of bloody-mindedness, intuition , irony and sudden compassion that you don't see in a lot of female leads. I love watching how her head works, and then outsider points of view on her as things shift.

I am rather bored with the Ixion subplot. It's got an aura of "curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal" about it that's just not very interesting to follow. Still, he's a moving part of the pay off next book, so he can't be all bad.