This is a prequel piece to the second novel in the sequence, 2 Serpent's Rise which was probably my favourite to date. The setting of these two is probably what makes it for me. An Incan/Aztec city seen through a modern lens with the overlay of all that Gladstone has added.
This was an excellent book. Definitely more 4.5 than 4. This book is about change, resistance to authority and how even when things look like they are going to work out, they don't.
40 years ago the God Wars happened and man killed their gods. In the city of this novel that stopped the bloody human sacrifices that those gods demanded. However, the priesthood didn't all go away and that is what this is about.
Recommended.