I had been warned that this book will rip your heart out. I considered myself adequately warned. I dove in and planned to write a bit on the magic system. I loved the simplicity of the base magic that then built on almost a programming language with code, coordinates, and specific action limited around set parameters. I thought it was brilliant to layer in our modernity to something arcane and wild. And don’t get me wrong, it still is. 

But there’s a question posed around the mid point of the book. If two men die, one that intended good throughout his life only to have all his actions cause suffering and harm and one that went through life deliberately intending suffering and harm but those around him benefited from his actions, which man would be considered good? (I’ve butchered it but you get the gist.) That moral and philosophical dilemma is the crux of the entire system (magically and societally). And I’m just sitting here, gobsmacked because it’s so perfect and so complex that I can’t think of any other story that takes this question and weaves it so elegantly into a narrative. It’s brilliant, it’s beautiful, and it’s so, so brutal. 

“I’m not your glory, I’m your penance.”

Consider yourself warned, your heart will break. And you won’t want it any other way.