A fun book with an interesting cast of characters. John deBrun is the clear star of the book– many of the other chapters provide a little more context, but only Dihana, Haidan, and Oaxyctl have great POV chapters. Dihana and Haidan’s work is a nice parallel story, the city background to John’s travel story, and Oaxyctl’s chapters gives a good attacker’s perspective.
The world and technology are an interesting blend; an isolated colony with a collapsed industrial base, just now trying to recapture technology. It’s almost a steampunk level of tech (trains and airships), but it doesn’t have a steampunk feel.
The Aztecs are twisted, largely by their worship of their alien “gods”. The aliens, both loa and aztec, are strange and it’s clear that they’re an isolated part of a larger societies.
In the end, it doesn’t look like a sequel is planned. It was fun, and well written, but I’m not convinced that his books leap to the top of my list.