February 2025 read: Liked it better this time around, maybe because I appreciated all the information about the setting a bit more. And maybe because I’ve read the second half of the series more recently so that I know how this story figures into the overall arc. 

Previous read, rated 3 on GR: 3.5, really. Plot was a bit too convoluted and additional characters weren’t as fleshed out as they could have been.