This book had many points of appeal for me. The idea of a monastic society based on science and math instead of religion is priceless. There is a lot of fun wordplay, as indicated by the title. The story contains a primer on ancient greek philosophy and remains entertaining. There are didactic dialogs that as suspenseful as the martial arts action scenes. There is mountain travel over glaciers on homemade snowshoes. Plato, or his Abrean equivalent, is the ideological hero of the tale, and while it didn’t turn me into a Platonist, it did make me consider the way fantasy can enhance ideology, which is something for a piece of fiction!