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Now I know all about Cardenias romantic and sexual preferences. Not that I care. How can people like this book?

"For the life of him, Ghreni had nothing to say to any of this. It was literally like his tongue and brain—his two advantages—had simply shriveled up and blown away."
So he was dead, as without his brain, all function in his body ceased, and the brain cannot be sustained without the rest of the body.

Unless, of course, Scalzi meant "figuratively".

I was gonna say the twist right now was good, but PEER REVIEW foiled the villains' plans.

It's like Chris Pratt is in every scene telling me not to take things serious in the silliest voice possible. Civil war, torture, coronation ceremonies, ripping off refugees, threats of torture, inducing necrosis that necessitates limb amputation, all fun and games!

The only thing to be taken serious is Canderas' (Candeelas? Candices?) angst about losing Naffa. Which is too badly written to be taken serious.

Probably not the least erotic sex scene I've ever read, but it's an honorable effort to make it. "He put his thingy into my you-know-what"-level. Why, then, even write a sex scene? I just don't see the purpose, not even the supposed purpose.

Very boring pages after the exciting story of the Dacian Wars. Not like the author is to blame if politics are boring, however.

Pretty stupid interrogation scene.

"“Hello, Chat,” Marce said, and that was as far as he got before Chat materialized a blade out of fucking nowhere and rushed directly for him."
This reads like a teenager wrote it.

Nevermind, Kiva only took rich people on board, after duly ripping them off. She's probably even more rich than them, but yeah, let's still be smug at them.

This might be the most amateurish book I've ever read.

Finally some fighting, and it happens entirely off-screen.

"Marce took another swallow from his water. He was afraid, and deeply concerned for his individual well-being—Ghreni Nohamapetan struck him as just the sort of smug sociopath that would in fact have him tortured just for fun—but he also felt strangely detached."
None of this showed earlier. This is bad writing, plain and simple.

I'd subtract one star from the second essay for flirting with social constructionism.

Now I understand Saint Demetrius' and Saint Heraclas' opposition to Origen much better. He preached without being ordained, and later got ordained by the Bishop of Caesarea. Theologically, he was condemned for his doctrine that the devil would be redeemed, but not his universalist position. The text hasn't yet spoken of whether he held this doctrine and for how long.

Trajan was less merciful in his second Dacian campaign, which can probably be explained by Dacias blatant breach of the terms of surrender.

Interesting description of Trajans celebration as "triumphator".

Very good reconstruction of Trajans Dacian campaign.

*sentence

"For each step Korbijn said something ceremonial, said more as she was laying the object on Cardenia, and even more afterward, followed by a prayer or small homily, or both."
Who would write such a sengrnce?

Very moving!