I'm a quarter of the way in and enjoying it. What I liked most as a kid, the ambling pace and cozy humor, is all there. The world of this book is weirdly comforting: a peaceful land of traders and eccentrics, of homely pleasures (lots of descriptions of food, cooked and uncooked) and modest landscapes, with the threat and promise of astonishing things just beyond the horizon. And yes, more than the usual number of fish references: characters exclaiming "Why, I'm a codfish", etc, not to mention the whole thing takes place on a river.
You can feel Blaylock's secret love of steampunk. The elfin ship of the title is basically an enchanted zeppelin, and the magical items so far are all at least semi-mechanical.