[double agent inside of the Blackhats (hide spoiler)

Yup, it's still amazing. Ben Styke's arc is so powerful and exciting. Lots of really good scenes with top-quality dialogue. But again, I can't overstate how good the 200 page long climax to the book is. All three POV characters get REALLY great action and intensity and emotion in their endings, and it's just so difficult to put the book down once you get within sight of the end of the book.--------------------------------I was super lucky in that I was able to read an advanced reader copy of this one. BIG thank you to Brian McClellan for that!I feel so repetitive in my initial conclusion...guess what? I LOVED this one. I'm a huge powder mage fan, so it's not surprising. I've loved everything I've read from Brian, but I there were a few things that were just exceptional in this book. I'll refrain from any spoilers, but here are some thoughts I had while I was looking over my notes from this one:Brian builds on a fantastic start in Sins of Empire . Mad Ben Styke, Michel Bravis, and Lady Flint are already a great cast, but Brian really outdoes himself here. Ben Styke gets...deeper. We get to see a LOT more from him, and it's all handled really well. Michel has a nice pivot here. I wasn't sure how his story would be handled, since his role in Sins of Empire wouldn't work well here. His story still capitalizes on his strengths, but with him working outside of his role as a (view spoiler) , we see a bit of a different side of him and his capabilities. Lady Flint is still my favorite. I've grown so attached to her. Brian handles her story and her relationships in the best possible way. She's an adult, she has a past, that past impacts her, but there's no angsty weirdness. It's all just a regular flawed human doing her job. She continues to be the brightest spot in this series for me.Sure, this is a long book, but I feel like we get to see so much more of the world that it feels like it shouldn't all fit in naturally. We get history, politics, magic, and culture without big info dumps. There are some great moments where everything slowly "zooms out" and we get to see an even bigger picture of the world than we had before. It's amazing to think that way back in Promise of Blood we were mainly focused on just a few locations in Adro, and now we're here.There are some great quotes, but Brian normally has a few great ones in each of his books. He's added in some more humor, interesting scene transitions (there are two specifically that are so cool and impressive), ideas on human nature and morality (without being too heavy handed), and natural dramatic tension. He's at the peak of his writing chops here.Honestly, I don't even know what to call it. Can I really call it a climax if it's the last 1/3rd of the book? In my notes, there's a clear mark of where it all starts rolling towards the finish. It's an incredible ride through the last 200 pages. I don't want to say anything else, but I'm so incredibly excited to experience it again on my re-read, and it's all pointing towards a really exciting setup for the conclusion of the trilogy.It's as close to a perfect powder mage book as I can imagine. I give it the highest recommendation possible.