I've had the book for quite a while, but I kept putting off reading it because I also heard that it was much more political than the previous two. Considering how, despite their quality, Mieville's Bas Lag books don't make for light reading even at the best of times, I was very put off by that information. Your review gives me hope though! I'll have to give it a shot sometime soon. It might be just the thing to break me out of the reading rut I'm stuck in.