YMMV / Raising Steam

• Anvilicious:
  • Yes, bigoted terrorists^note  who live in deep caves, attack tall towers and railways, and who regard themselves as The Only True Believers who can't accept modern technology, women's rights or tolerate same-sex or interracial relationships are bad.
  • Towards the middle of the book the plot grinds to a halt so that Feeney from the last book can wax fauxlosophic about how terrible cultural assimilation is.
  • Technological progress (in the form of a railway) is really, really good. A lot of the story is dedicated to how beneficial the railway is, without any real setbacks to the railway's construction, or any corrupt business conducted during its construction. And the only people who do not like it are backwoods terrorists that nobody likes anyway. Avoiding things that should have been major setbacks and avoiding interference by less scrupulous businessmen is actually a Historical In-Joke Running Gag.
• Genius Bonus: Or, anyway, a clever bit of word choice that's easy to miss: when Vetinari is traveling to Uberwald by coach at the beginning, the potholes are said to cause "fundamental discomfort". "Fundament" can mean "rear end". Translation: a sore bum.
• Lighter and Softer: Despite being a book where the antagonists are actual terrorists, the book is generally pretty positive. The railway gets started without any major tragedies or disasters, with the antagonists remaining in the background for most of the story and the revolution is swiftly put down with little violence the moment the King/Queen arrives. Even her gender reveal receives no opposition.
• Moral Event Horizon: The first thing the Grags do on-page is attack a wedding out of pure blind intolerance and kill two of the attendees, including the bride.
• Padding: A number of asides are taken to showcase characters from previous books doing their own thing, none of which serve any purpose in the plot whatsoever. Lu Tze shows up to talk to Ridcully, the wizards take a ride on Iron Girder, Feeney waxes fauxlosophic, a dwarf visiting his old granny in Uberwald is saved from a lynch mob by Grag Bashfulson, etc etc etc.