I've finished: City of Last Chances by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Readers of Shadow of the Apt will find familiar themes here: A fascist modernizing empire, the waning magic of the old world that can still pack a punch. Ancient curses.
But the emphasis is on different areas. Everything happens in one occupied city. The endless continental war and emphasis on grand strategy of Shadows of the Apt is not present. We get more characters and factions and their motivations.
My favorite characters are the god of healing and his priest. They are both satire and comic relief. Holding up a pacifist option that finds no takers.
Tchaikovsky has grown as an author and City of Last Chances is better suited to my taste at 49 than the military fantasy of Shadow of the Apt.