This wasn't as bad as I feared it would be! YES! 
 Maria V. Snyder, consider yourself redeemed! 
 This was everything that Poison Study was not. Questions were answered, worlds and settings were properly described. And I didn't notice any improper use of terms that shouldn't exist in the time period. Also, the characters were pretty good. 
 To be fair, some of them kind of ran into each other and seemed pretty similar, but mostly, they were pretty good. 
 First of all, Trella. Kind of your classic, intense herione. Sneaky,outsider, distrustful, and straight-shooting. But she wasn't just stereotypical, she had her own slant, and I really enjoyed reading her narration. 
 Riley. Sheepy and Mama Sheepy. Nuff said. 
 And Cog. And Logan. And Anne-Jade. And Broken Man. There were just good characters. 
 Also, this story reuses the typical plot of under class vs upper class vs authorities. There are some good peasant uprisings (and, no, that's not really a spoiler.) But, it uses it in a new way and wasn't boring to read. 
 I'm not sure why I'm taking away a star. Maybe because I felt the writing a bit stilted without a good flow a few times. Really though, this book was good.