I thought this was a great story if a bit short. I’m not sure what everyone was talking about with this being an overly emotional story. There was the addition of a homosexual man, and his struggles to fit in in two very different societies, and how people of different backgrounds felt about him. I thought the reactions seemed pretty realistic given the characters very different backgrounds, and added some depth to the world by exploring the prejudices of the different cultures. We got to learn more about Ludus culture, and the cultures of the other aliens home planets a bit.
I didn’t feel this book was any more, or less emotional than most other books I’ve listened to lately. Unless people having relationships, and expressing their love is too much for them, or the addition of a homosexual character makes them uncomfortable, everything seemed pretty normal to me. The treatment of the character seemed pretty realistic, and each character reacted to him differently based on their background. It helped compare, and contrast the different cultures; which I felt made the alien ones come alive a bit more. It was interesting to see how a female run, polygamist planet with a much higher population of females reacts differently to a homosexual man, vs a homosexual woman.
The fight scene at the end was pretty epic, and the book ended with one heck of a bang. Only complaint was pretty much how short the book was, and agree it felt a bit more like a short story. However, I’m still excited to move on to the next installment. This series seems like it could be pretty awesome as long as it doesn’t derail at some point. Narration was fantastic as usual.