And the fourth and final one is coming out in August! I've started reading them out loud with my girlfriend. They're actually a little too complicated sentence-structure wise to be great for reading out loud, but whatever. It's lovely introducing her to Mycroft Canner.
The release was moved back to September 7th. The book ended up being 2x the length, and extra weird to typeset and translate to audiobook.
I quite like the existing audiobooks. The narrator seems to be good with languages, and is familiar with the
Iliad (Rage!)
One of the most realistic and "real" worlds from a socio-historical pov I've ever read.. Palmer's world building does for history and sociology what peter watts does for biology and neuroscience.
I really like the worldbuilding, but I don't think it's any more "realistic" than a fantasy novel or galactic empire science fiction. In particular, the complicated governance stuff is in there because it's fun, not because it would actually work. There is straight-up magic as well as ambiguous possibly-magic.