The Claw of the Conciliator

Oooh, I just love the vision and imagery in this second book. The plot is decent, although not all that clear, even two books in. But, this world is so awesome. I can only hope that my brain is frozen for many uncountable millenia, only to be found and resurrected in such a mixed technology civilization. Portals? Time travel? humanoid robots? poor peasant? ignorant populace? Technologically sophisticated aristocrats? cloned animals? alien species? other inhabited planets? hybrid creatures? Gods? Yes, this series appears to have all or some of them, depending on how you intepret what the characters experience. All of the main characters so far are of the midieval type, being slowly dragged into the lost technological scene. It's such a beautiful mish mash that I think I'll keep reading the rest of the books in the series right away.