3.5, or thereabouts. There's a lot I really love about this; the setup, the main theme, the idea of language magic, the way it sets up the dreaming spires and magic school only to cheerfully tear it apart, the clip it starts moving at once it gets going...

But damn, Kuang doesn't half run her theme into the ground, does she? Of 545 pages I'm pretty sure fully half are characters discussing colonialism, and I love that they do, and I love that it's the central conflict, but there is such a thing as overegging. Especially since it starts sounding a little too much like a 21st century textbook rather than an 1830s period piece.

Also, for a story with so little changed - or maybe exactly because it's a story with so little changed - I kind of wish she'd explored that one change more. Give me more etymolagic, use it for more than just spells; if you want to do The Secret History, then do The Secret History.

Still, yeah. It manages that trick where it makes me want to overlook its flaws, and that goes a long way. It's memorable, just not only for the best reasons.