First things first the book cover shown on his website reminded me so much of The Power of Lard that I played it on repeat while I was reading. I enjoyed the story - the pacing and ideas were great as well as the horror theme. The story seems to reflect society/clan/nation and worship but I ignored the bigger perspective i favour of world/society building games instead but then quickly throughout the whole damn thing I couldn't shake the feeling of a parallel between god and author. Not being an author, but having met a few, I'm fascinated by an author's inability to precisely direct their characters behaviour and situations. Of course not all authors are created equal but I've met some who say they don't (or can't! ) control their characters because they have their own lives independent of the author. Obviously Kress initially thinks he can control the little darlings but it becomes quite clear how little control he wields. This quickly dominated my mind and got me considering the psychology of writers instead.