I really wanted to love this book. I normally like the quiet, character-heavy portions of the series at least as much as the adventure and mystery - Mirror Dance and Memory are probably my two favorites, and I loved A Civil Campaign and Lord Vorpatril's Alliance - but for some reason this one didn't work for me as much. (Don't get me wrong, it was good - just not up to the standards of most of the rest of the series.)

I think a lot of the problem was Jole, who we'd barely met before despite his importance in Cordelia and Aral's lives. I really enjoyed Cordelia's sections, as a quiet farewell to the series that brought things back around full circle to Shards of Honor, and I loved seeing Miles and his family through her eyes. But Jole didn't come together as a distinct character for me, and their romance left me fairly cold, except for the enjoyment of seeing Cordelia happy.

As a (probably) final Vorkosigan book, it works well enough. (But I would love get a peek into the lives of the next generation and see the hordes of children everyone's been producing as adults.)