This feels like a big departure from the previous book. The first one was kind of a set of slices of life from a weird fantasy city under occupation, and this one follows one of the characters into an army field hospital.

The main theme seems to be exploration of what it would look like to attempt to rules-lawyer a world with magic, gods, and demons.

I enjoyed it, but I didn't get a real sense of continuity from City of Last Chances - they're essentially two distinct novels set in the same world.