This is very much a book by Jasper Fforde, and if you’ve read other books by him, you’ll recognise his humour, his phrasing, and his worldbuilding. Which is why I liked the book well enough, but not more than that. Magic as a natural (and regulated) thing is hilarious.
The protagonist is well written. I liked her as a person and a character. I appreciated that he gender was in no way important to the story - this is rarely done well and very refreshing.
The story was a bit boring and dragged on (or didn’t catch my interest), but, as always, Fforde compensates with excellent, tongue-in-cheek worldbuilding, which I enjoyed a lot. As always, political and corporate structures make an awesome weird sense.
Overall, a nice book, but nothing special. Very optimistic and useful as a palate cleanser.
