Threerings Read The Vorkosigan Saga: Mirror Dance
Again I have to thank ashfae who sent me this book.
Mirror Dance
Chapter 1
-HAHAHAHAHA - Sorry I can't get over the clone encountering Taura. HAHAHA.
-Anyway, I figured this book would be about the clone (I can't remember his name. Mark? I'm not sure.) due to the title and the cover picture. Also, wow, it's really thick. I'm excited.
-It's quite interesting to get the Clone POV on what it's like to be Miles. The way everyone looks at him, is excited to see him, "glows" when he's around. You have to feel sorry for the clone though, knowing what he doesn't have in his own life.
-So the clone wants to free the clones on Jackson's Whole. Good for him. Except as Thorne quickly points out it could get really problematic given all the enemies they made there last time. And how is Taura going to feel about going back? Other than happy to rescue the clones, I guess.
-But mostly this is just such a disaster waiting to happen
Chapter 2
-Ok, yay it's the real Miles! I'm glad we didn't have to wait forever to get to him. And he's with Quinn and they are mostly being adorable. I spent the first part of the chapter wondering when he's find out about the clone, and then I got totally sucked in and forgot about the clone, so later when he was on the ship I was all, "Wait, shouldn't someone have asked what he was doing there by now?"
-It's really nice that for all these books are mostly space opera they don't let you forget the cost of the battles, the dead and the injured. Here Miles is confronted by both the dead and the permanently severely disabled.
-It's also interesting when he says that Naismith has stopped being a fake front and now he just IS Naismith. He's really running a private army. How do you STOP being an Admiral once you've been one? The fact that he gets no real recognition for everything he does truly sucks.
-And he's finally realized that his clone is out with one of his ships, with a three day head start.
Chapter 3
-Mark (I was right!) finally tells Thorne all the details of the creche they are breaking into, but just doesn't have Miles' flair for tactics. This will not end well.
-When Thorne kissed him I thought he'd heard from Miles and knew it was the clone, because I just couldn't see it actually kissing Miles, knowing he's with Quinn. Guess I was wrong. (Also apparently I have a real problem not thinking of Thorne as "she" because I keep typing that.)
Chapter 4
-I don't really like stopping to type every chapter, but with the POV shifting back and forth it seems like I should. Anyway, not much happened this chapter other than a staff meeting with Miles' people setting everything up. Miles is going after Mark, the rest of his people are smuggling ships, the end.
-also we learned about the extreme abuse Mark suffered during his "training" to be Miles.
Chapter 5
-Disaster, I told you.
-But I totally realized Bel knew it wasn't Miles, as soon as she tried to tell him how to use the helmet. Stupid Bel! Really, this was a BAD CALL thinking you could pull this off without Miles.
-Wait, did she just REACH INTO A BURNT DEAD BODY AND SMEAR IT ON MARK'S FACE? Wow.
-But, yeah, inevitable DISASTER.
Chapter 6
-WHAAAT! NO, you can't have Miles SHOT IN THE CHEST AND HAVE HIS CHEST EXPLODE. And then end the chapter! Wow, it's a good think I'm not Mark and can keep reading. (Meaning, of course, not the clone Mark...)
-Yeah, umm, other stuff happened that was mostly action? Miles going to rescue Bel and Mark and the kids. But yeah, umm, mostly I'm going to keep reading now.
Chapter 7
-This is really not any better! So Miles is fucking dead, but in the cryo chamber (at the expense of someone else) except they LEFT THE FREAKING CRYOCHAMER BEHIND. And now Mark is going to have to pretend to be Miles for the cloners and Baron Fell, I assume.
-Oh yeah and they have the head of House Bharaputra kidnapped as well, I guess as insurance or whatever scheme Miles cooked up.
-On the plus side Mark threw himself in between Quinn and a plasma arc and saved her life, so he's worth something. Speaking of Quinn, how FUCKED UP IS HER DAY? She's left in command when her lover is killed and she has to drain his body of blood and root around in it for arteries and shit. No thanks. And now she has to probably try to pull off some kind of con without Miles around.
-Hey, whose POV is the next chapter going to be?
Chapters 8-9
-YAY I can combine chapters again because for now we are only in Mark's head. So Mark is in shock after the trauma of the escape and battle while everyone else tries to figure out what to do and how to get Miles back. Mark has to pretend to be Miles to Baron Fell and I'm glad he does a pretty good job. I really do feel sorry for him, even though he's kinda an idiot. He's very concerned for the clones and their well-being, though he wishes he got more gratitude or praise for rescuing them.
-I love the idea that Cordelia would consider him her son. I mean that's a pretty big leap to make really, but she totally would and that's awesome.
-Dude, Quinn, that was so not a good idea to lose it at Baron Fell. Let's just tell him that it's Miles in the cryochamber and that you have associations with Barrayar. Seriously. Stop.
-Yay Mark figures out what happened to Miles. In a brilliant move, Norwood SHIPPED him somewhere. They just have to figure out where.
Chapter 10
-Well that was disturbing. I really don't even know what to say after reading an attempted rape of a 10 year old girl in a woman's body, told from the POV of the rapist. And then of course the details about his own rape by his caretaker. No, honestly I don't know what to say.
Chapter 11
-As much as Mark's forced overeating disgusts me, I understand the impulse for him to make himself look as little like Miles as possible.
-I'm quite moved by how moved Illyan is at Miles' death.
-I'm also EXTREMELY EXCITED about Mark going to Barrayar to meet Aral and Cordelia.
Chapter 12
-So the first meeting between Mark, Cordelia, and Aral is fascinating all around. Cordelia and Aral are pretty much awesome all around, and it's kinda cute how eager Aral is really to have another heir for his line.
-I was really shocked when Cordelia gave her opinion of Miles' exploits as Admiral Naismith and when she said he was not sane. She takes it back a bit, but it's interesting that she sees it as...problematic, as a symptom of what everything he's gone through in life has done to him. Also that she says that as soon as Miles no longer NEEDS to be Admiral Naismith that ImpSec will find they don't need him either.
-I also like getting a glimpse of the effects of all the conditioning Mark went through in his reactions
Chapter 13-14
-Mark meets with Gregor, who really seems a bit Imperial for the first time that I can remember. And it seems like they hit it off, as much as they could.
-And then Mark wanders off from Ivan and gets in a fight with some punks who call him a mutie. It's interesting that he's a pretty effective fighter, though trained to kill, not fight.
-And then the great conversation between Cordelia and Aral that Mark overhears in the library. I'm glad he's getting to see who they really are.
Chapter 15-16
-So Aral takes Mark walking in the country and reveals that they found Miles' cryochamber, BUT IT WAS EMPTY! Honestly this would distress me more if there were a whole lot more "Miles Vorkosigan" books after this one. But it's upsetting because now his parents think he really is likely dead.
-And then ARAL HAS A HEART ATTACK! And Mark has to run for help, and then run back up the mountain and then run back down! And everyone thinks he did it! Seriously, imagine he turns up and the the two people between him and the Countship die mysteriously.
-So Aral is waiting for a heart to grow so it can be transplanted (neat) but he's not doing very well. And Mark has to attend the Emperor's birthday party where he gets really jealous of the way the girls act to Ivan but not to him.
-There's also an interesting bit by Cordelia where she talks about how the uterine replicator is already being used by the middle class and once the Vor start using it their entire society is going to change.
Chapter 17-18
-More at the party, Mark is approached by a girl who is friendly and gets him to dance and enjoy himself which is pretty awesome.
-Then he goes home and ends up calling Illyan asking to be part of the search for Miles and then calling Gregor at 5AM to get him to order Illyan to let him into the investigation. He's finally decided to do something proactive!
- So he spends days reading reports and eventually decides Miles must be on Jackson's Whole and he wants to go there himself to look for him. Illyan doesn't trust him enough to send him, so he asks Cordelia. Who decides to buy him his own ship so he can go. Cause its nice being Vor.
-Also Elena forgives him after Cordelia explains his past trauma. So there's that.
Chapter 19
-IT'S MILES!! After the first sentence I did a little dance cause I knew it was Miles! So he's alive, with undersized organs that are still growing. And he has no memory of who he is, although he knows things. He is apparently being held in a medical research facility run by clones and located in secret under some other building?
-Miles nearly finds his way out of the building and manages to be sarcastic when he can't even really speak.
-Also what is with the one doctor kissing him? That's just weird.
Chapter 20-21
-Back to Mark. He makes preparations to leave to go to Jackson's Whole. The most interesting part is when he talks to Kareen over the phone and he realizes she might actually like him. And he's really smart, knowing she probably needs to know about his past sooner than later and tells her to talk to Cordelia about it.
-And then he's at Komarr putting the crew together for his trip. And he is able to draw some pretty brilliant conclusions about who has Mark and the cloned doctors. But we still don't know why they are hiding him or what they want with him.
Chapters 22-23
-Miles is improving. His doctor tries fast-penta on him to get his memories back, but it lead to Miles being super hyper and escaping the building before being caught by the doctors and taken back. He is moved to Dr. Rowan's private quarters and then they sex. Which I still think is pretty damn weird. I'm not sure that a seriously injured, barely functional patient is all that sexually attractive.
-Miles eventually meets the head of the operation, Lilly. who apparently wants Admiral Naismith to help her and he sisters escape House Fell. She just doesn't know if the clone she has is Naismith or not.
-Then somehow Mark apparently finds the place and Miles is called in to meet with them and Lilly. He's convinced that Mark is Naismith and he's the clone. Mark is dealing with Lilly when disaster strike via a strike team crashing through the window and kidnapping Mark. Miles and Rowan run but are attacked and kidnapped by an entirely DIFFERENT group of armed thugs. So Miles is being held now by Baron Bharaputra, which is bad no matter how you slice it.
Chapter 24
-Well this book just got horrifying. I....don't think this was necessary. Mark is being held by Ryoval and being tortured by forcefeeding, rape while under aphrodesiac, and having his skin melted off with chemicals. Umm that was unpleasant.
Chapter 25-26
-Miles gets his memories back. -Mark continues to be tortured, but has buried his personality deep.
Chapter 27
Miles and Rowan are visited by the clone of the Baron's wife, who looks like Rowan. They trick her into switching clothes with Rowan and Rowan escapes. Later Miles and the clone are taken out and the clone, pretending to be Rowan is sent back to the clinic. Miles has apparently been sold to Ryoval.
Chapter 28
Mark is taken to Baron Ryoval who is upset because Mark seems to have fractured his personality enough to enjoy his torture or at least not react to it. This chapter is effective in its distubing portrayal of Mark's fractured mind. The assasin part of him finally takes the opportunity and kills Ryoval before escaping.
Chapter 29
Miles arrives in the guard of two of Ryovals men to find the entire base empty, Ryoval dead. He tricks his two guards into a cell and calls ImpSec who sends the Dendarii who are nearby. Baron Fell arrives to see if his brother/enemy is really dead and while he and Miles are in Ryoval's office, Mark calls up. He's at the clinic with the cloned doctors and wants them all to come visit.
Chapter 30 & 31
-When they arrive he has Ryoval's hand and code ring in a case sealed with explosives and his finger on a dead-man switch. Because he is done fucking around. He gets Baron Fell to agree to let the doctors leave, and give Mark 10% of the worth of Ryoval's operation, in exchange for the ring.
-Elena returns from destroying the video evidence of Mark's torture and there is a very uncomfortable scene between the two of them. He says he doesn't intend to hide or deny what was done to him but couldn't face Aral or Cordelia or Miles ever seeing the video. I continue to be deeply disturbed by both what was done to him and his response to it. But I'm not capable of making any coherent points about it at this point.
-Mark wants to be an ImpSec analyst and sit in a very safe building and analyse things correctly to help the people on the front lines. Totally respectable.
-The stuff between Miles and Mark is cute, a bit of rivalry and Mark asserting himself as his own person. I love how nonplussed Miles is by his brother's competence as well as his Miles-like mania.
Chapter 32&33
-Back on Barrayar, the Vorkosigans attend the Winterfair ball. Aral and Miles are both still recovering, Aral more so. Mark is pretty much physically recovered. He's lost some weight, but decided to keep a lot of it to distinguish himself from Miles.
-He dances with Kareem after talking to Cordelia about her. I like that he's talking about getting therapy on Beta for his traumas. And that Cordelia has encouraged Kareem to spend some time on Beta to broaden her worldview.
-I really love what Mark says about needing to learn people before he can really be an analyst.
-So finally, I'd say things are left at an interesting place.
I am still, um, ambivalent about Mark and the trauma he had and his psychological reaction to it. I don't know, this certainly was an interesting and compelling book, but I'm feeling pretty depressed today, not just due to the book, for many reasons, but this hasn't really helped my overall state of mind. So I'm having problems saying anything about it.
Mirror Dance
Chapter 1
-HAHAHAHAHA - Sorry I can't get over the clone encountering Taura. HAHAHA.
-Anyway, I figured this book would be about the clone (I can't remember his name. Mark? I'm not sure.) due to the title and the cover picture. Also, wow, it's really thick. I'm excited.
-It's quite interesting to get the Clone POV on what it's like to be Miles. The way everyone looks at him, is excited to see him, "glows" when he's around. You have to feel sorry for the clone though, knowing what he doesn't have in his own life.
-So the clone wants to free the clones on Jackson's Whole. Good for him. Except as Thorne quickly points out it could get really problematic given all the enemies they made there last time. And how is Taura going to feel about going back? Other than happy to rescue the clones, I guess.
-But mostly this is just such a disaster waiting to happen
Chapter 2
-Ok, yay it's the real Miles! I'm glad we didn't have to wait forever to get to him. And he's with Quinn and they are mostly being adorable. I spent the first part of the chapter wondering when he's find out about the clone, and then I got totally sucked in and forgot about the clone, so later when he was on the ship I was all, "Wait, shouldn't someone have asked what he was doing there by now?"
-It's really nice that for all these books are mostly space opera they don't let you forget the cost of the battles, the dead and the injured. Here Miles is confronted by both the dead and the permanently severely disabled.
-It's also interesting when he says that Naismith has stopped being a fake front and now he just IS Naismith. He's really running a private army. How do you STOP being an Admiral once you've been one? The fact that he gets no real recognition for everything he does truly sucks.
-And he's finally realized that his clone is out with one of his ships, with a three day head start.
Chapter 3
-Mark (I was right!) finally tells Thorne all the details of the creche they are breaking into, but just doesn't have Miles' flair for tactics. This will not end well.
-When Thorne kissed him I thought he'd heard from Miles and knew it was the clone, because I just couldn't see it actually kissing Miles, knowing he's with Quinn. Guess I was wrong. (Also apparently I have a real problem not thinking of Thorne as "she" because I keep typing that.)
Chapter 4
-I don't really like stopping to type every chapter, but with the POV shifting back and forth it seems like I should. Anyway, not much happened this chapter other than a staff meeting with Miles' people setting everything up. Miles is going after Mark, the rest of his people are smuggling ships, the end.
-also we learned about the extreme abuse Mark suffered during his "training" to be Miles.
Chapter 5
-Disaster, I told you.
-But I totally realized Bel knew it wasn't Miles, as soon as she tried to tell him how to use the helmet. Stupid Bel! Really, this was a BAD CALL thinking you could pull this off without Miles.
-Wait, did she just REACH INTO A BURNT DEAD BODY AND SMEAR IT ON MARK'S FACE? Wow.
-But, yeah, inevitable DISASTER.
Chapter 6
-WHAAAT! NO, you can't have Miles SHOT IN THE CHEST AND HAVE HIS CHEST EXPLODE. And then end the chapter! Wow, it's a good think I'm not Mark and can keep reading. (Meaning, of course, not the clone Mark...)
-Yeah, umm, other stuff happened that was mostly action? Miles going to rescue Bel and Mark and the kids. But yeah, umm, mostly I'm going to keep reading now.
Chapter 7
-This is really not any better! So Miles is fucking dead, but in the cryo chamber (at the expense of someone else) except they LEFT THE FREAKING CRYOCHAMER BEHIND. And now Mark is going to have to pretend to be Miles for the cloners and Baron Fell, I assume.
-Oh yeah and they have the head of House Bharaputra kidnapped as well, I guess as insurance or whatever scheme Miles cooked up.
-On the plus side Mark threw himself in between Quinn and a plasma arc and saved her life, so he's worth something. Speaking of Quinn, how FUCKED UP IS HER DAY? She's left in command when her lover is killed and she has to drain his body of blood and root around in it for arteries and shit. No thanks. And now she has to probably try to pull off some kind of con without Miles around.
-Hey, whose POV is the next chapter going to be?
Chapters 8-9
-YAY I can combine chapters again because for now we are only in Mark's head. So Mark is in shock after the trauma of the escape and battle while everyone else tries to figure out what to do and how to get Miles back. Mark has to pretend to be Miles to Baron Fell and I'm glad he does a pretty good job. I really do feel sorry for him, even though he's kinda an idiot. He's very concerned for the clones and their well-being, though he wishes he got more gratitude or praise for rescuing them.
-I love the idea that Cordelia would consider him her son. I mean that's a pretty big leap to make really, but she totally would and that's awesome.
-Dude, Quinn, that was so not a good idea to lose it at Baron Fell. Let's just tell him that it's Miles in the cryochamber and that you have associations with Barrayar. Seriously. Stop.
-Yay Mark figures out what happened to Miles. In a brilliant move, Norwood SHIPPED him somewhere. They just have to figure out where.
Chapter 10
-Well that was disturbing. I really don't even know what to say after reading an attempted rape of a 10 year old girl in a woman's body, told from the POV of the rapist. And then of course the details about his own rape by his caretaker. No, honestly I don't know what to say.
Chapter 11
-As much as Mark's forced overeating disgusts me, I understand the impulse for him to make himself look as little like Miles as possible.
-I'm quite moved by how moved Illyan is at Miles' death.
-I'm also EXTREMELY EXCITED about Mark going to Barrayar to meet Aral and Cordelia.
Chapter 12
-So the first meeting between Mark, Cordelia, and Aral is fascinating all around. Cordelia and Aral are pretty much awesome all around, and it's kinda cute how eager Aral is really to have another heir for his line.
-I was really shocked when Cordelia gave her opinion of Miles' exploits as Admiral Naismith and when she said he was not sane. She takes it back a bit, but it's interesting that she sees it as...problematic, as a symptom of what everything he's gone through in life has done to him. Also that she says that as soon as Miles no longer NEEDS to be Admiral Naismith that ImpSec will find they don't need him either.
-I also like getting a glimpse of the effects of all the conditioning Mark went through in his reactions
Chapter 13-14
-Mark meets with Gregor, who really seems a bit Imperial for the first time that I can remember. And it seems like they hit it off, as much as they could.
-And then Mark wanders off from Ivan and gets in a fight with some punks who call him a mutie. It's interesting that he's a pretty effective fighter, though trained to kill, not fight.
-And then the great conversation between Cordelia and Aral that Mark overhears in the library. I'm glad he's getting to see who they really are.
Chapter 15-16
-So Aral takes Mark walking in the country and reveals that they found Miles' cryochamber, BUT IT WAS EMPTY! Honestly this would distress me more if there were a whole lot more "Miles Vorkosigan" books after this one. But it's upsetting because now his parents think he really is likely dead.
-And then ARAL HAS A HEART ATTACK! And Mark has to run for help, and then run back up the mountain and then run back down! And everyone thinks he did it! Seriously, imagine he turns up and the the two people between him and the Countship die mysteriously.
-So Aral is waiting for a heart to grow so it can be transplanted (neat) but he's not doing very well. And Mark has to attend the Emperor's birthday party where he gets really jealous of the way the girls act to Ivan but not to him.
-There's also an interesting bit by Cordelia where she talks about how the uterine replicator is already being used by the middle class and once the Vor start using it their entire society is going to change.
Chapter 17-18
-More at the party, Mark is approached by a girl who is friendly and gets him to dance and enjoy himself which is pretty awesome.
-Then he goes home and ends up calling Illyan asking to be part of the search for Miles and then calling Gregor at 5AM to get him to order Illyan to let him into the investigation. He's finally decided to do something proactive!
- So he spends days reading reports and eventually decides Miles must be on Jackson's Whole and he wants to go there himself to look for him. Illyan doesn't trust him enough to send him, so he asks Cordelia. Who decides to buy him his own ship so he can go. Cause its nice being Vor.
-Also Elena forgives him after Cordelia explains his past trauma. So there's that.
Chapter 19
-IT'S MILES!! After the first sentence I did a little dance cause I knew it was Miles! So he's alive, with undersized organs that are still growing. And he has no memory of who he is, although he knows things. He is apparently being held in a medical research facility run by clones and located in secret under some other building?
-Miles nearly finds his way out of the building and manages to be sarcastic when he can't even really speak.
-Also what is with the one doctor kissing him? That's just weird.
Chapter 20-21
-Back to Mark. He makes preparations to leave to go to Jackson's Whole. The most interesting part is when he talks to Kareen over the phone and he realizes she might actually like him. And he's really smart, knowing she probably needs to know about his past sooner than later and tells her to talk to Cordelia about it.
-And then he's at Komarr putting the crew together for his trip. And he is able to draw some pretty brilliant conclusions about who has Mark and the cloned doctors. But we still don't know why they are hiding him or what they want with him.
Chapters 22-23
-Miles is improving. His doctor tries fast-penta on him to get his memories back, but it lead to Miles being super hyper and escaping the building before being caught by the doctors and taken back. He is moved to Dr. Rowan's private quarters and then they sex. Which I still think is pretty damn weird. I'm not sure that a seriously injured, barely functional patient is all that sexually attractive.
-Miles eventually meets the head of the operation, Lilly. who apparently wants Admiral Naismith to help her and he sisters escape House Fell. She just doesn't know if the clone she has is Naismith or not.
-Then somehow Mark apparently finds the place and Miles is called in to meet with them and Lilly. He's convinced that Mark is Naismith and he's the clone. Mark is dealing with Lilly when disaster strike via a strike team crashing through the window and kidnapping Mark. Miles and Rowan run but are attacked and kidnapped by an entirely DIFFERENT group of armed thugs. So Miles is being held now by Baron Bharaputra, which is bad no matter how you slice it.
Chapter 24
-Well this book just got horrifying. I....don't think this was necessary. Mark is being held by Ryoval and being tortured by forcefeeding, rape while under aphrodesiac, and having his skin melted off with chemicals. Umm that was unpleasant.
Chapter 25-26
-Miles gets his memories back. -Mark continues to be tortured, but has buried his personality deep.
Chapter 27
Miles and Rowan are visited by the clone of the Baron's wife, who looks like Rowan. They trick her into switching clothes with Rowan and Rowan escapes. Later Miles and the clone are taken out and the clone, pretending to be Rowan is sent back to the clinic. Miles has apparently been sold to Ryoval.
Chapter 28
Mark is taken to Baron Ryoval who is upset because Mark seems to have fractured his personality enough to enjoy his torture or at least not react to it. This chapter is effective in its distubing portrayal of Mark's fractured mind. The assasin part of him finally takes the opportunity and kills Ryoval before escaping.
Chapter 29
Miles arrives in the guard of two of Ryovals men to find the entire base empty, Ryoval dead. He tricks his two guards into a cell and calls ImpSec who sends the Dendarii who are nearby. Baron Fell arrives to see if his brother/enemy is really dead and while he and Miles are in Ryoval's office, Mark calls up. He's at the clinic with the cloned doctors and wants them all to come visit.
Chapter 30 & 31
-When they arrive he has Ryoval's hand and code ring in a case sealed with explosives and his finger on a dead-man switch. Because he is done fucking around. He gets Baron Fell to agree to let the doctors leave, and give Mark 10% of the worth of Ryoval's operation, in exchange for the ring.
-Elena returns from destroying the video evidence of Mark's torture and there is a very uncomfortable scene between the two of them. He says he doesn't intend to hide or deny what was done to him but couldn't face Aral or Cordelia or Miles ever seeing the video. I continue to be deeply disturbed by both what was done to him and his response to it. But I'm not capable of making any coherent points about it at this point.
-Mark wants to be an ImpSec analyst and sit in a very safe building and analyse things correctly to help the people on the front lines. Totally respectable.
-The stuff between Miles and Mark is cute, a bit of rivalry and Mark asserting himself as his own person. I love how nonplussed Miles is by his brother's competence as well as his Miles-like mania.
Chapter 32&33
-Back on Barrayar, the Vorkosigans attend the Winterfair ball. Aral and Miles are both still recovering, Aral more so. Mark is pretty much physically recovered. He's lost some weight, but decided to keep a lot of it to distinguish himself from Miles.
-He dances with Kareem after talking to Cordelia about her. I like that he's talking about getting therapy on Beta for his traumas. And that Cordelia has encouraged Kareem to spend some time on Beta to broaden her worldview.
-I really love what Mark says about needing to learn people before he can really be an analyst.
-So finally, I'd say things are left at an interesting place.
I am still, um, ambivalent about Mark and the trauma he had and his psychological reaction to it. I don't know, this certainly was an interesting and compelling book, but I'm feeling pretty depressed today, not just due to the book, for many reasons, but this hasn't really helped my overall state of mind. So I'm having problems saying anything about it.