So whatever happened to the Ainu?
Scattered, kicked off Hokkaido and resettled forcibly on a series of small, rather inhospitable islands as revenge for the tyranny of the minority rule government of Ezo.
1) What did you particularly like about the TL? Did any characters stand out?
2) How was the writing style/flow? How did dialogue and description feel?
3) If you could suggest an improvement point, what would it be?
1. People have already said this, but the continued relevance of Europe. Too often, it's reduced to the US and USSR squaring off with Europe as their puppets - the autonomy of actors like Britain, Belgium, and especially France on the world stage was rather refreshing to see. I also liked the moral ambiguity - apart from the Nazis and Communists, who are as morally bankrupt as it gets, nobody's necessarily evil on the face of it. Take Portugal - King Duarte seems to honestly care about his subjects in a very typical father-protector king way despite his Charles I-esque tendencies, and while you can dismiss the Lusitanians as backward, cultish boors and exalt the Portuguese rebels as civilised for their rejection of their hidebound traditionalism and embrace of democracy, you can also see the Lusitanians as far better than some of the other settler states and seemingly trying to compromise with the entitled mainlanders, who, in their hubris, reject the uppity peasants for simply not understanding the way a modern state ought to properly function. Both sides have a point, and that makes things much more fun than just democrats good, empires bad.
2. Good-great most of the time, with a few exceptions. Again, hate to echo people, but the super-long paragraphs really are a problem. Make things harder to parse.
3. Apart from the paragraphs, maybe do more of the little interludes. An in-depth look is always good, and helps shed light on events through a different lens.
