The Dark Volume, by G.W. Dahlquist

It's sat on top of my filing cabinet for four years, approximately, but I've at last finished the (borrowed; beware those who expect me to return things quickly) The Dark Volume by G.W. (Gordon to those who read the US edition) Dahlquist. The book has something of the air of a story designed to relocate characters with an eye to the next novel in the sequence, rather than being a narrative in its own right, but the worldbuilding develops as Dahlquist continues to pick and choose from European geography and the history of politics and technology. There is much musing on memory, but more as pointers to character development than its fulfilment. Like the Contessa di Lacquer-Sforza, however, one would happily spend more time with Dahlquist's protagonist, Celeste Temple, as she learns to know herself and her decrepid society; she and her allies Chang and Svenson make the decisions in extremis the reader would like to make.