Ekaterin hasn't been a PoV character since... she got married.
THIS BOTHERS ME SO MUCH I CAN'T EVEN. I don't even ask for her to be a POV character! I don't even want her to have, like, her own career (okay, I totally do, but I am willing to compromise on that). All I want is for her to display some of the awesomeness we know she has, and that there are so many opportunities for. There were so many wasted opportunities in DI and so many here... and even in Cryoburn; why couldn't there have been a parallel Barrayan plot... oh well.
the annual death-offering wasn't new information
In general I thought sometimes there were way too many info-dumps in this book (is there really anyone who is coming to this as a first Vor book?) but this one was really nice, to see a parallel view from Alys and Ivan.
The By/Rish interaction felt too neat - I don't like my romances like dominoes, knock one down and cascade the rest, even if (as I check facebook) life is sometimes exactly like that - I wanted Rish to be awesome on her own. And not simplified.
Huh. This made me realize that I had rather compartmentalized Rish-as-awesome-friend and Rish-as-By-love-interest, and what happened in one compartment didn't affect the other one. Mostly, I think, because ever since Sharing Knife I simply don't trust LMB and romance anymore, so when she does it I'm all "OK, sure!" and move on :) I thought Rish was pretty awesome on her own, and considered By more as a little toy that she brought along (and notice that he goes with her, not the other way around, YAY).
The implications about Jackson's Whole biochemistry / genetics are, again, not new, but are extremely unsettling to contemplate at any length.
Yeah. I really wanted, once I knew this was a book about JW, to see this delved into more. I'm ok with this not being the book for that, but I wonder whether she's ever going to write gritty in this universe again.
no subject
THIS BOTHERS ME SO MUCH I CAN'T EVEN. I don't even ask for her to be a POV character! I don't even want her to have, like, her own career (okay, I totally do, but I am willing to compromise on that). All I want is for her to display some of the awesomeness we know she has, and that there are so many opportunities for. There were so many wasted opportunities in DI and so many here... and even in Cryoburn; why couldn't there have been a parallel Barrayan plot... oh well.
the annual death-offering wasn't new information
In general I thought sometimes there were way too many info-dumps in this book (is there really anyone who is coming to this as a first Vor book?) but this one was really nice, to see a parallel view from Alys and Ivan.
The By/Rish interaction felt too neat - I don't like my romances like dominoes, knock one down and cascade the rest, even if (as I check facebook) life is sometimes exactly like that - I wanted Rish to be awesome on her own. And not simplified.
Huh. This made me realize that I had rather compartmentalized Rish-as-awesome-friend and Rish-as-By-love-interest, and what happened in one compartment didn't affect the other one. Mostly, I think, because ever since Sharing Knife I simply don't trust LMB and romance anymore, so when she does it I'm all "OK, sure!" and move on :) I thought Rish was pretty awesome on her own, and considered By more as a little toy that she brought along (and notice that he goes with her, not the other way around, YAY).
The implications about Jackson's Whole biochemistry / genetics are, again, not new, but are extremely unsettling to contemplate at any length.
Yeah. I really wanted, once I knew this was a book about JW, to see this delved into more. I'm ok with this not being the book for that, but I wonder whether she's ever going to write gritty in this universe again.