I liked your novel a lot. Posted a short review on Kobo. Really enjoyed it.

The whole end-of-the-era crisis segment feels terrible though. Just a horrible, manufactured reversal to hard-won progress. No fun at all. Total shite.

I went through the era change and it was fine. Rome to the Normans felt coherent enough. Still confused about which city improvements are now considered archaic and replaceable but on the while it works.

20 hours in and I'm starting to have fun. Still think Firaxis made some odd design choices and failed to push the genre forward.

Re Civ VII. Biggest missed opportunity is diplomacy which - so far - seems even worse than Civ 6. Firaxis really seems to have aimed low here.