Stuff that used to be hard just isn't hard anymore! - Robin Sloan

I feel a pang of pity for the logbook, its secrets are all plucked out in minutes by this whirlwind of light and metal. Books used to be pretty high-tech, back in the day. Not anymore.

"Every day you learn something amazing," Kat says, "like there's a secret underground library in New York City" - she pauses and gapes for effect, and it makes me laugh - "and you realize there's so much more that's waiting. Eighty years isn't enough. Or a hundred. Whatever. It's just not."

Moffat's prose is fine: clear and steady, with just enough sweeping statements about destiny and dragons to keep things well inflated. The characters are appealing archetypes: Fernwen the scholarly dwarf is the everynerd, doing his best to live through the adventure. Telemach Half-Blood is the hero you wish you could be. He always has a plan, always has a solution, always has secret allies that he can call upon - pirates and sorcerers whose allegiance he earn with long-ago sacrifices.