When I read this book, I found it fabulously entertaining. It's an interesting world, an interesting story, and a great book to read. However, I've since read some criticisms of the book as being racist because it features an alternate history of North America in which there are no Native Americans, or at least, they aren't mentioned in the book. Upon reflection on the book, I can see how this could be viewed as a painful erasure. So I would call this a highly interesting, but problematic book.