Status Updates From Souls in the Great Machine ...

I'm not sure why, but in the last few pages the editing and the choices made by the author have really gone downhill. There are a couple really bad typos, the author gets left and right confused within the space of two sentences, and a character's speech impediment is transferred to a different character momentarily (I'm assuming by accident and lack of editing). On top of this, there's a theme emerging I don't like.

I'm starting to slow down as I get through this book. Something about it isn't working for me, and I suspect it's the characters. The other aspects of the book are excellent, however I keep returning to the fact that I all the characters are manipulative, power-hungry, overly-pragmatic, and deeply unlikeable. The main character especially makes choices for power that I'd never make, and it's hard to root for her.