It's got some provocative ideas, which Stephen foregrounds.

It's got a great hook, and like most writing incubated under circumstances like this, it leans hard into polished sharp introduction into a well-considered world with a very specific flavor.

It's also—no better way to put it—crappy as a novel.

It's not because the author can't string sentences together.

It's because that's not what makes a novel function as a novel.

Epic opening and premise establishment: 10/10

Nice "plot twist", predictable in its inevitability if not its specifics; conforms to genre: 7/10

Narrative arc: 2/10

Ability to sustain meaningful tension and interest while working through the de rigeur mechanics of filling hundreds of pages: 1/10

I get that there is a new readership with different expectations and styles of reading. (Looking at you tiktok; looking at you Dungeon Crawler Carl; looking at most successful YA fiction especially that which gets SPICEY and is released in 8-book series with a new volume every 11 months)

If you're silverback and relish long-form fiction as previously conceived: set expectations accordingly.