My opinion of this book suffered somewhat given I waited so long between reading sessions that I ended up feeling a little lost when I would pick it back up. But the impressive thing is the ability Bujold has to take several complex threads, many characters, galactic politics, spies, and a command of the English language beyond my own, and weave them into an entertaining and ultimately enjoyable story nevertheless. I also kept wondering, why did this book win the Hugo award? Maybe precisely because of what I just wrote. Also it has been a while (if ever) that I have seen the characters "&etc" written as a legitimate word in a book! Now that I think I've finished the mixed ordering reading (reading them out of chronological order, because I'm reading them in publication order, or trying to anyway) of early Miles adventures, I think from here on out they are both chronological and publication order synchronized....