Although the themes are of societal importance even in the modern mundane world, and the character development is finely-honed and excellent, that childish wonder of "what would it be like to wander around a body as though it were a world?" digs in deep throughout the work. In the third of this series, Brian and Gregory are immersed in The Great Body, and their understanding of the the Norumbegans is put to the test: the heavily-oppressed machines are staging a resistance, and the boys are caught in the middle, literally. As one of their closest companions is a machine, being nonmechanical has never seemed like such an impediment to understanding.

Although the work is extremely interesting and intricate, this is a series that requires readers to immerse themselves in the previous books first The Game of Sunken Places and the Suburb Beyond the Stars expertly set the stage for the feelings of unreality and dystopic nightmare that THE EMPIRE OF GUT AND BONE so brilliantly portrays.