This is book 3 of the "Vlad Taltos" series.

This note contains spoilers for the book.

Cawti falls into a Marxist cult among the Easterners in Adrilankha. And hasn't told Vlad what's up.

Given Steven's own Trotskyist background, Vlad's conversations with Kelly are very interesting. He also finds himself dealing with issues about his profession that he hasn't had to previously.

How proletariat revolution would interact with The Cycle is never really resolved. This one is continuing, or at least Kelly is continuing to pursue it (and he's got lots of support among Easterners and Teckla). Given the power of the gods, it seems like Kelly doesn't stand a chance in the long run, but we don't get any clear authorial declaration on that.