this book is lightning in a bottle, and one of my favorite urban fantasy books. aside from a great plot, compelling characters, and a great sense of humor, i want to highlight its great use of my favorite worldbuilding technique, "casual reference to historical events that require a great deal more elaboration."

nothing has more power to make a world feel lived in than, revealing, for instance, a side character earned his stripes on protection duty in some sort of magical cold war between lizard-toting wizards, or that the first assassinations in the fictional government organization occurred in the context of a bisexual love triangle, or a side character channels the energy of every left-handed person in the world (to what ends??). i want to know more about each of these things.