This is the follow on from ‘Wanderers And Islanders’ and starts with a prologue describing how the two apprentices, Geoffrey and Ruthie, find themselves working with a new Magician, Leonardo Pegasus.

Leonardo changes the workshop and starts bringing in new equipment and machinery for his new machine. Ruthie soon fits in with his work but Geoffrey soon finds himself on the sidelines.

Ruthie starts to ignore Geoff and spends more and more time with Leonardo. When Geoff confronts Ruthie she says she is helping Leonardo 'hang his curtains in his home'. Something goes wrong and Ruthie falls out of favour with the magician and seeks physical comfort with Geoff.

It soon becomes apparent that Ruthie is pregnant. The three of them look through the magician’s books to see what the correct code of conduct is for apprentices. It's found that apprentices should remain celibate while working for the palace and the royal magician.

It's decided between them. The best cause of action is for Geoff and Ruthie to resign. Leonardo finds them a house near the sea. Tom is born and Geoff sets to and finds work as a local repairman while Ruthie looks after baby Thomas. Geoff is happy in his new line of work but Ruthie feels trapped and eventually runs away leaving Geoff to look after the baby.

Like the first book, there are about three or more main stories at any one time that are narrated in separate headed sections throughout the book. At the beginning of the book this includes sections of 'The Digest Of Affairs And Events' - The Diary of Miss Garamond (Herald). This is written in the style of a newspaper column and recants the official events that occur in the city and the surrounding province as dictated by King Matthew.

Also, there are sections which comprise of an informal interview with Thomas (the son of Ruthie and Geoff). It is not made clear until well into the book who is interviewing Thomas and this information marries with the other story threads at that point in the book.

These sections are Thomas recanting his life story. This plays out much like a psychotherapy session until the end of the book, at which point the style changes slightly.

The third story at the beginning follows Rusty as his tries to start up in the city and find his way. The book follows his life as he discovers friendship with Alice and later, a successful career and family. Further on, there are side stories introduced, such as that of Nina and her use of the Empathy Engine as a side-show in a travelling circus. Also introduced are the continuing stories of Leonardo Pegasus and also the House of Rest.

All the stories are kept separate but unlike the first book there are a lot more ties between them. If you imagine the first book, the stories if they were placed together in a draw string bag are kept loose and separate until near the end of the book.

At which point the drawstring is slowly closed bringing the story lines together. In this second book, the drawstring is already partially closed at the start of the book. The storylines although kept physically apart on the page feel a lot more intertwined.

This multi-threading on the whole works really well. The writing feels far more comfortable than in the first book. The different styles of writing and presentation do not jar but allow an interesting way of getting stories and characters across.

The clever linking of characters and plot-lines between sections push the book forward and reduce confusion that seemed to occur with Wanderers and Islanders. The stories as they are told do not necessarily follow the same timelines but do merge and coincide at various points throughout the book.

The city politics are nicely introduced along with the sweeping changes King Matthew brings about. There is a beautifully slow deterioration of the society and nature in the world formed in the book. This is emphased by the realisation by some of the characters that things are starting to go increasingly wrong.

The world created by the author still has an eclectic mix of old and new as is demonstrated by the development of the Signal engines. A sort of steampunk Internet that uses the Empathy Engine and a series of kites. It is not until later in the book that the technology is found to have a darkside.

Steve Cockayne's writing is vastly improved and thus a lot more enjoyable. This book is more character driven than the previous. This expands and pushes forward the Empathy Engine that Leonardo creates in the first book and takes it to a much darker and menacing point. The stories of Rustie, Thomas and Leonardo come together towards the end of the book and this almost has the feeling of a Stephen King horror novel in its culmination.

You probably get the feeling that I enjoyed this book a lot better than the first and you would be right. Steve Cockayne has seemed to have ironed out most of the problems that plagued ‘Wanderers And Islanders’. It still is an unusual read but don't be put off. Even if you haven't read the first book, the storylines are complete in themselves.

Those of you that have, will find the world and characters have more breath and space to develop. Things are kept closer knit and storylines develop more readily.

I especially think most fans of fantasy - those who like something a bit different from the usual mainstream fair will really enjoy this.