This time around Alvin is on trial. Not even kidding. Most of the book is taken up by Alvin going back to stand trial for ‘stealing’ the golden plow from Makepeace. It’s actually a surprisingly decently plot and we get a lot more worldbuilding, including two different viewpoints in Europe. In one, we have a lawyer with a knack of his own who wants to learn from Alvin and looks to be a new main character. In the other, Alvin’s brother Calvin’s adventures in France, meeting Napoleon.

Unfortunately, it seems like we’ve spent yet another book just spinning in place. Alvin continues to plan on building his Crystal City and training new Makers… but he’s not getting to either any time soon. At the very end, he does manage to marry Peggy and meet up with the Prophet again, but it feels only to set up the next sequel.

Characterwise, I do like Verily. It’s interesting to see how someone with a powerful knack akin to Alvin’s, but that grew up in a land where such a thing is supposed to be a death sentence. Likewise, I think Calvin’s story is interesting. He has such a completely different view of the world from Alvin and doesn’t even seem to realize it. He’s not a particularly good person and seems to be okay with that. It makes him feel a little more real than Alvin ever did.

All together, I think I’m done with the series for the time being. It’s not flat out a bad series, but I feel like there are better books I could be reading first.