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I finished the book and enjoyed it.
I didn't have any particular issue with torture or mass murder as I live in a world that is supposed to be civilised but can still justify both quite easily.
I didn't necessarily consider the Wizards bad, just like I didn't necessarily consider the Steerswomen to be good. I could definitely see why they were in different corners though. The Wizards seemed to have a responsibility that wasn't really revealed and this may have impacted their protection of information and Steerswomen were almost fanatical about freedom of information.
I was not surprised at all to find the obvious contradiction of lying side-stepped in a grand "ends justifies the means" rationale. This is not an uncommon situation in this world, so I felt quite at home in this story. I even liked the fact that the "good guys" hired a particularly brutal attack dog who - for reasons not really that obvious - decides to make their quest her own. I doubt we'll see her betray her current "loyalties", but it did feel a bit like previous alliances of the U.S. with characters such as Saddam Hussein and Bin Laden - good while they're on your side.
I was neither here nor there on the classification. I think fantasy still fits as the genre as of this episode. On the other hand, I'm not totally uncomfortable with a science fiction classification either. It seems like the series is going to gradually move more and more into the science fiction arena - so the destination of the story is likely the deciding factor.
It was a good story. I gave it 4 stars.
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