*nods* There's a very different edge to Miles' "rules? what rules?" attitude when there's people around stuck doing what he says. Though I was deeply entertained that he seems to be rubbing off on Roic.

And now that the plots are focused more widely, not just on Miles and his Issues but on whole planets worth of people, it really doesn't wrap up the same way. This reminded me a bit of Ceteganda, that way. I think narrow focus in a wide context is Bujold's forte, and it felt like she was trying to get back to that by giving us Roic and Jin's povs, but she's tied Miles into the broader picture so thoroughly it kind of doesn't work any more. Not as long as he's there too.

I'm really glad I spoiled myself for the ending. Knowing it was coming, there's a lot of foreshadowing, and I could brace myself.

*thoughtful* You know, I'm not at all sure this is set up for another book. I felt more like she got to the end and realized that there was a whole nother book in Aral's funeral and people's reactions, and couldn't face writing it. So she wrote the afterword instead (which was, indeed, a bit odd, stylistically; I'd have expected /scenes/ instead of drabbles proper).

Perfectly happy to have paid for it, but yeah there are some odd aspects.