This book is organized oddly--many interesting scenes are sent to footnotes at the rear of of the book, instead of being integrated with the rest of the text. I also found the juxtaposition of tender love with a gleeful acceptance of torture (done by the heroes) rather jarring (hey, I didn't like it in the Harry Potter series when the Gryffindors did bad stuff and didn't think anything of it either). Once I considered the 'human' race in this book as aliens, I was able to deal with certain oddities somewhat better.

I'll still read more of these Terran Empire books, but this one was not by favorite.