Sam

Such a good story. I love the drip feeding info about Ettersburg. The multiple cases mixing.

The dialogue beats for multiple characters speaking are a bit tough to listen to when it's multiple people chatting, I wish the author would have considered words other than "said". But outside of that I'm even more hooked than I was after the first book. Honestly, love a tasteful sex scene. Aaronovitch keeps it classy.

Wow. What a story. The prose is easy, the science is digestible and well thought out. It's emotional. It's beautiful. It had me up all night listening to it. Ray Porter is an incredible narrator.

This would have been 5 stars for me if it weren't for the really cringe male horniness from Grant. Surely there are more eloquent ways to write you want to motorboat someone than the phrase "blubby, blubby, blubby" 😭😭😭 i get it, it's no different when I post a drooling emoji in the group chat. These are meant to be fleeting thoughts from the mc, they just don't come across the page well. I hope Peter matures.

But I gave that a pass because I love the story. The plot had some really good twists when I got around 75% in. But the story had me hooked throughout. The action scenes were fun. I loved the plot. Audiobook narrator is a win. The prose was easy to read, not so dense that it bored me. Aphantasia friendly! I'm really looking forward to the next books.

Pen's growth from the first novel was so nice. He's so wise now, but that's expected with Desdemona's context.

I didn’t expect this novella to affect me the way it did. Bujold explores grief and survival in invisible ink but with such care that parts of this story felt almost too real. It’s thoughtful, humane, and quietly devastating in the best way.

"Certain death still held attraction. Uncertain death, less so. He hurt enough already."

Bujold really told two stories in this novel. One of the stories only some people will see.

“It’s all very good now. And if it is not, there will be something better.”

It started a bit slow for me. And I think the pace over all was a tad slower than I typically like, but the story was wonderful and the end left me wanting more.

Wow. What a great book. is exactly what I said as I finished finished listening to/reading it.

Great murder mystery. Awesome setting and story.

The prose is clean. Fast paced. Low visual load, which I prefer since I can't “see” that stuff anyway.

I'm a massive Murderbot fan and this was suggested to me because of that, also because I love Wells style. And it certainly gave me a similar reading experience, in the vein of Fugitive Telemetry.

The graphic details weren't too bad as someone sensitive to them. I winced once but it wasn't gratuitous.


And I fell in love with Zachary Quinto as a narrator. A fantastic experience.

Probably the best book in the series in my opinion. Excellent from start to finish. (They all are. But this one scratches all my itches)

Stopped because I didn't enjoy the prose.