too like the lightning + seven surrenders

I read Too Like The Lightning a few weeks ago and gave it a hearty, almost frothing recommendation. It's easily the most excited I've been about a book in years; the last time I remember having this feeling was probably when I was reading Yukio Mishima's Spring Snow which was, gosh, four or five years ago?

Having read the second book now, I'll explain them like so: the first book was like watching a fabulous magic trick. The second book was a little bit Magic's Biggest Secrets Revealed—satisfying, in that you finally see where Palmer's going with all of this. Less satisfying, in that some of these tricks are revealed to be rather unmagical smoke & mirrors rather than the hoped-for super-clever-solution.

In particular, the ultimate aim + incredible success of a certain character's scheming is a bit hard to swallow. Plots that rely on folks holding the idiot ball is not great in the best of circumstances, but it becomes intolerable when some of the holders are implied to be the most powerful, most intelligent, best-educated persons in the whole world. Also a lot of the plot seems to rely on a rather dubious interpretation of World War I history, which I'm willing to swallow for a bit to see where things are going, but are still rather awkward.

The world, however, remains very rich and exciting and weird, and in particular the religious/miraculous aspects are still as fascinating as ever.

That's all I can say without spoilers. Someone please read these so I can scream about them with you endlessly plz