Wow, that was disappointing. The whole thing was much too romantically motivated with stupid spur-of-the-moment decisions and a possessive love triangle. I have nothing against some romantic sub-plots but this just took too much presidence for me. I also disliked all the characters, good, bad, and other-wise. If I hadn't read the last two books in the series already (albeit years ago, but I do still love them, and plan to reread them), I would probably not be encouraged to continue the series from here.

I was hoping for amazing amounts of space-arctic-western badassery, but instead just got romantic pining and poor decisions. Also, why did they insist on changing Shrike's name to Grike?

It does provide vital backstory for the rest of the series though, so I wouldn't say it's a complete waste of time. But it definitely crushed all of my expectations.