maybe there’s a genuinely good character study buried in here about a crisis of faith, but we only see glimpses and I’ve lost patience over the unseriousness of the entire planning of the mission, a mary sue, and quippy side characters. I also can’t figure out what purpose withholding emilio’s detailed trauma on rakhat serves, aside from forcing readers to keep reading, when it seems the entire jesuit society already knows what sins and/or crimes emilio has committed. it’s an interesting premise that sadly never got to a point that convinced me to keep going.