Swords And Humour

I have read to the end of The Alchemist's Revenge by Peter Cakebread. An initially straightforward plot becomes increasingly elaborate - wheels within wheels. Apart from the Mafia-like criminal gang, the Association, there is a secretive organization of powerful people called "the Tinkers." Are they the Clockwork & Chivalry universe equivalent of the Masons?

I have found two other parallels with Poul Anderson. One is vividly described battle scenes and sword fights - although such passages should be common enough in historical fiction?

The second parallel is unexpected humor. In A Midsummer Tempest, this is mainly at the expense of the Puritans. Told that France is a Catholic land but tolerates Protestants, Nobah Barker replies:

"'A Catholic land. That means they tolerate Catholics too, does it not? Wherein lies freedom there?'"
-Poul Anderson, A Midsummer Tempest (London, 1975), p. 139.

Cakebread describes a Cambridge in which "...the only religious orthodoxy...was a lack of an orthodoxy."
-Peter Cakebread, The Alchemist's Revenge (Swindon, 2013), p. 168.

Street preachers rant, spectators cheer and:

"William wondered if these ranters were fulfilling a need for public entertainment..." (p. 169)

(That sounds like a joke but is probably historically accurate.)

I was amused by this passage:

"Perhaps Ma Grindrake would have invited them to stay for another night, if they hadn't been such a sour-faced bunch. The only traveller who wasn't wearing a grim expression was Ralph - but then again, he was covered in bandages, so who's to say?" (p. 144)

And there is a comical climax when William and Ralph each sit in a "'...fancy little cage...'" (p. 184) above great striding metal legs. Warned that first gear called "slow" is quite fast, that second gear called "fast" is very fast and that third gear is dangerous and to be avoided, they manage to attack their enemies in third gear which makes them unstoppable and, when Ralph's gear lever breaks off in his hand, he can stop only by crashing into something.

So the "First Book of the Companie of Reluctant Heroes" ends and when can we expect the Second?