Starting this book was a wrench after the end of the first book - I needed to know what happened and couldn't bear to at the same time.
I find it fascinating how Bear can basically take the same premise (we're wandering around a space ship in search of specific people) and tell such fascinatingly different stories each time. And I loved a chance to get to know the earlier generations of the Conn family. She's moved from religio-medieval space opera into teh realm of space opera fantasy quest and it works wonderfully. Now I want to see what the third book will do.