★★★★☆ – Don’t mind if I do!

Economical and efficient; emotionally resonant and eminently personal. Possibly other “E” words. Effulgent. Effervescent. Ecclesiastical. No… I immediately veered into irrelevance there.

A lovely image of a smartly bounded mini-world, painted in a bit further with every paragraph. Timms gives the impression of having an eye on what every part is meant to accomplish.

I particularly enjoy the element of using mythology without naming it – the ruling class is plainly based on Medusa, but she is never named, which (along with the fact that it takes place somewhere in Egypt-ish) lends the story a moreish sense of cultural amalgamation; of living naturally in the greater collective consciousness of fiction.