I was about to dismiss Cherie Priest and her Clockwork Century series as over hyped, finding them pleasant enough while being slightly confused by enthusiastic praise being heaped on them. But, this final scheduled volume (hopefully there will be more) changes most of my concerns. This is a great adventure with lots action and terrific pacing. There are too many characters with too little differentiating a lot of them and the ending is a bit of a fizzle. The extended Civil War has always been in the background in the first two books and here we finally get to see some of it. So this is an adventure with war, steam punk gadgets(never overbearing), zombies, intrigue, bandits, and some terrific set pieces. I could definitely read more of these.