The second novel of The Age of Madness. The peace that ended the previous book is already fraying - the nobles are restless, the new industrial class is demanding representation, and the people doing the actual work are organising. Savine navigates an increasingly unstable social landscape. Leo is being pulled toward something he may not be able to control. Rikke consolidates power in the North through methods that would have seemed unthinkable to her father. Abercrombie tightens the political screws methodically, and the sense of inevitability building toward catastrophe is one of the trilogy's great achievements.