I'm really not sure what to say about this book.

Fact: The writing is good. Fact: The story is as original as I've read in a while. Fact: There are interesting characters.

None of those interesting characters are nice or decent. They are the darkest, murdering, nasty bitches and bastards I've ever encountered in books. Grimdark? This is the blackest, vilest grimdark I have read.

I really enjoyed the chapters involving the three... characters Bedeckt, Stehlen and Wichtig, mainly because those are the more sane chapters. The Konig chapters and the ones with Gehim are totally insane.

One nitpicky thing: The author used a bunch of German words to describe the various powers in this world. See, the Geisteskranken (people with power) are numerous and their names are fairly confusing to me. For those reading the book, I wish I had known that Michael Fletcher had put together a wiki before reading it. I could have looked up words like Körperidentität or Somatoparaphrenic when needed.

For those not yet reading the book or want to check it out, that site is

http://michaelrfletcher.com/beyondwiki/index.php?title=Main_Page