The highest praise I can heap on the third installment of Ada Palmer's science fiction series is that there is one chapter which is just a lengthy senate session and it is riveting. Not only do we learn more of how Palmer's almost utopian future works, but it all comes to us through the lens of Mycroft Canner's unreliable and singular narration, interspersed with interjections from both his imaginary "reader" and an imaginary version of 17th century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes (who looms over this entry in much the same way Voltaire and Diderot did the previous ones).