Good first book with a very interesting world. A little slow in a few places but it was mostly during some of the world building sections. I enjoyed it and will definitely read the next one. ( )

So, I very rarely give reviews because I usually either like or don't like a book and I'm not big of writing basically, "good book, read it if you want to, or don't, your loss." I nearly didn't read this book because of all the bad reviews and decided I should try to add my voice to the good ones so people are less likely to miss out.

What I can tell you is it LOOKS like most of the bad reviews came from people who read the ARCs. I'm not seeing the problems that they complained about in the ARCs, so either:
A. It was rewritten/edited after the ARC (sort of the point of ARCs to get opinions and fix loop holes or plot difficulties, etc),
B. The difficulties aren't really all that difficult,
C. Some other reason.

Please, at least give this one a chance, don't let the bad reviews scare you off. ( )

Likable characters, believable flaws, good room for mythos building, ok world building, depth feels slightly limited
would read more from author ( )

I really enjoyed this book - its a fun world, a fun magic system, and an interesting premise. Its solidly written, with interesting characters. There are a few problems with the world, such as why the infestations were kept hidden - there wasn't anything to be gained to do so. ( )

So there's this alternative world where some Magi did something with a weapon that went completely wrong and bad and now people mostly live in walled cities to save themselves from these creatures, magical entities that absorb people and places. Things have been working smoothly in Amicae, so smoothly that people have become complacent and the team of Sweepers, the people who defuse and dispose of infestations before they spread too far, are down to two. When they work for the wife of an important industrialist they discover another potential team member and rescue him from slavery.

There's so much jargon that sounds like something it could be and then isn't and honestly I'd prefer if they called the Rabbit a Smeerp here (see: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CallARabbitASmeerp) so I could distinguish between things that truly reflected this world and the things that didn't. I really wanted to like it but it just felt like it juddered from scene to scene and while there were parts that felt quite original and different in other parts it felt like the author was trying too hard to be different.

Not a bad read and it would be interesting to see what the author does next. ( )