Wolfhound century

Excellent and highly original worldbuilding, bizarre and rich a la Mieville imagination, deep, suffocating, dark and very noir atmosphere. Some characters well shaped (Kantor, Vishnik), some not so much, including the main ones (Lom and Maroussia). Unfortunately, the story itself is rather thin and bare, also somewhat disjointed. I will definitely read the rest of the trilogy, hoping that, having liberated himself from the worldbuilding, the author will provide a better storyline.
PS. Because of the cover, I expected it to be an alternate USSR. It was actually an alternate,steampunk, Tsarist Empire.