Still holds up on the 2nd read, I missed this book! Need to write a full review. ( )

When the key starts talking, I hear a stand-up comedian. Something in between Eddie Murphy and the crustacean in that Disney movie with the Ariel story minus the death and sadness. Keeping in mind that the key in question is an ancient sentient artifact, and that the world in which it exist is a mix between Renaissance Venice and Ayn Rand's idea of heaven with magic, I hope you'll forgive me for putting the book down, kinda forever (no, I am not honest here. If I find a hardcover copy for free, I may use it to prop my tablet.)
I should have seen it coming. The walled, guarded waterfront from where nobody could escape short of a daring, dangerous, ingenious master plan going perfectly... Oh look she threw a magic version of a bomb in the yard and, of course, all the guards including their cunning, famous boss run to the explosion, leaving the entrance, well, unguarded. After the boss himself had heard something suspect in the SAFE vault. Yeah sure, Jane. This was the second scene of the first chapter. I should never have made it to the part with the talking key.
A pity, though. The idea of industrialised magic based on reality overwriting was extremely cool, which is why I kept reading after noticing:
- the juvenile use of language
- the improbable plot-solving mechanisms (see bombs in the yard) already abundant in the first ten pages (whoa)
- the total lack of flesh on the bones of the setting: we are TOLD that the city looks like this and that, never SHOWN
- the Katniss-copycat heroine (aaaargh). Sorry guys, I grew up reading adult literature since I was too young to do a lot of other things, even by problematic teenager standards. No YA in this house.

That key talking like that, though, was too much. I give in. What a waste. ( )

I'm obsessed. This book is like "Inception" meets "Six of Crows" meets "The Lies of Locke Lamora" and it was everything I feel like I'd been craving to read lately! The magic system is complex and unique, the mystery element has these great sneaky layers to it, and the characters are so wonderfully fleshed out and human. The whole story is just chock full of mayhem and chaos that drags you right down into the depths of it and holds you there. Like, things get so batshit wild and I was livinggggg for it. I can't wait to read the rest of the trilogy! ( )

Very good book. It has a Sandersonian magic system, and is well thought out (although it is more flexible than a Sanderson system, so the things that can happen are less strict). I had some trouble relating to the characters at first. Sancia is likable, but I had the feeling she didn't have very strong attachments to anyone. I guess she is supposed to feel strongly for her colleague, but it doesn't really come through. And Gregor is an insufferable smug bastard. I hated him in the beginning, with his lofty high ideals that he then applies to someone from the slums. I was disgusted by it. He says himself he has to start somewhere, but I think justice would demand starting at a place where people commit horrors to better themselves instead of committing crimes to survive.
Fortunately, he becomes more palatable as the book progresses, and the other characters also become more relatable.
I liked the tentative start of a lesbian relationship. ( )

I'm giving this five stars because I recognize Bennett's style now and I know that the book is the opening salvo in a much bigger world. I expected the book to be the floor and the frame of magnificent house and that's exactly what I got. ( )