Already things seem somewhat busy, but there is another thread, detailed in mostly alternating chapters. It follows the growth to maturity of an orphan girl on another plane. We soon gather that this girl, Ebi, is Babylon Steel as a child. These chapters follow her young life as a servant, her time working as a caravan guard, and, most crucially, her selection as one of the Chosen of Babaska, one of the missing gods of this plane. Babaska is the goddess of whores and soldiers, which of course explains a lot about Babylon. But the gods of this plane, in their absence, are represented by Avatars, who have godlike powers, but who aren't quite gods, Ebi and her fellow Chosen seem to be on a path to become priestesses of Babaska, but... where is Babaska's Avatar?

All these threads really do, more or less, converge, and they all have a bearing on the ultimate direction of the novel. But I did have a sense that the whole thing was just a bit too busy, too involved. This isn't to say things were dropped. Indeed, this is a complete novel, with an honest resolution to all the issues it raises, even though at the end it seems potentially also a setup for future Babylon Steel adventures. There is a mystery plot (or two, really) -- and both are resolved satisfactorily, if not precisely surprisingly. There is the social justice plot involving the two races on the missing girl's plane, and there is the whole issue of Babylon's back story, and what's going on in her plane. These too are resolved reasonably well.

All these plot details miss a lot of what the novel is about, however. Much of the book concerns Babylon's relationships, mostly with her variegated set of employees -- whores, a cook, guards -- and also with people like Scalentine's Chief of Militia. These people all impact the advancement of the steps of the threaded plots, but the real interest is in their characters, and how Babylon interacts with them -- and this works fairly well.

So how does the book work in toto? It's an enjoyable enough read, for sure. But it's not brilliant. There are some neat ideas, especially regarding the nature of gods and avatars on Babylon's home plane, but lots of the other details, though colorful enough, come off a bit overfamiliar -- a bit too much of a cliché. So too is Babylon's voice, which is pretty pure contemporary PI, female version, in tone. And the action is well enough executed, but never surprising. In sum, not a bad effort, one that repays the price of admission, but not a book that really thrilled me either.