The mimes and the ninjas and the pirates and the corporate types. Harkaway's narrator (henceforth called Babycakes) is all about how being in an organisation that has set goals for the organisation as opposed to directional hopes for the world in which it works de-individualises a person, makes him/her lose hir soul, and hir compassion. Babycakes then fails to tell us why the pirates, the mime-ninjas avoid this trap. Or the K's, who really have a very fine line to tread. He even fails to tell us why the Bad Guys fell into it in the first place.

MEH.

And what do we know about, say, Leah, or even Gonzo, or Babycakes himself? Do we have a feel for these people?

If, for instance, Anansi sat down beside me and talked to me fr a while, and then told me he was Anansi, I fully expect that a part of me would go, this is why you're so familiar! Gaiman told me all about you! But if Gonzo sat down beside me? Nada. Mrs. Babycakes-Gonzo? Nada.

Maybe Sally Culpepper. Maybe Assumption Soames. Master Wu, right. But Zaher Bey was your generic Eastern-Man-Westernised-Beyond-The-West-And-Goodly-For-It. I liked him, and I liked his pirates, but I can tell you nothing about him. Beyond that he's adventurous, has a good heart, and won't stand for Wrong Stuff. I could say the same about Ben. And Ben is not Zaher Bey - frankly, I think that's a compliment. Zaher Bey is not a person, nor is he recognisable as one.

I liked the trope, the Gonzo-Babycakes split. But they're not people either.

In general, I am replying here to poop all over the idea that there was good characterisation in this novel. All these people are concepts, playing out their parts as concepts. In a more interesting book, this would be okay. But as I have said elsewhere, this book is carried away with how clever it is, and so I do not care for any of these people.