I can see why this wasn't published traditionally - the structure especially but also the angle taken on the content make it a challenging read, at times verging on opaque. It makes it more clear to me why my own experiments at telling a story through dozens of viewpoints have been doomed to failure -- not that I think Walton fails really; it's just inherently difficult to read. The fairly even alternating between the island and elsewhere helped a lot, but there were still times when I'd have to think hard to recall who was who, or even when I couldn't recognise a previously-viewpoint character through a new character's eyes.

In terms of its dealings with religion, it's very reminiscent of The King's Peace, in some ways a mirror image to the Christianisation of Sulien's environs. It's not quite in the same world I think (not in the same world as the prologue of The King's Name, certainly) but in spirit it's not very far from it at all. ( )