Freaking phenomenal. I still think parts of the book were ridiculous, and a few of the nine major characters were annoying, but hello? There were nine major characters in a book that didn't drag on for multiple volumes, and the author got me to care about most of them? And they all felt different, like actual distinct people? Give the guy props.
I don't understand why this book isn't rated higher on goodreads.

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Edit to add: I haven't been to India and what little I know of the country comes from a hodgepodge of sources, some more accurate than others (those Bollywood movies are probably not showing an accurate portrait of the country, hm?), but it feels like Ian McDonald has spent some serious time in India, absorbing it---or is really, really good at faking.

I read one of those "Indian Sherlock Holmes" novels a year or so back, the ones with the fat detective who goes around wobbling his head and wishing he could eat more pakoras. All the dialogue in there was, "Don't do chitter-chatter," and "One big development is being most important" and basically it felt like reading a kind of racist cartoon.

So...this isn't like that. Thank god.