You know, despite several attempts, I find it really hard to get into Elisabeth Bear's books or even short stories (and I love short stories). There's always such great concepts, and even great characters, but I think she and I have some sort of stylistic disconnect because I always myself putting the book down and starting something else after a while. I've mostly given up, but... how's the reader for this series? If the reader's really good, maybe it's worth giving it another go while I'm working on some knitting/robotics/unpacking.