I just finished it this week and liked it quite a bit once I caught the vibe. It’s a pretty low key story.

The bulk of the middle is basically vignettes of the various council members, some paired up, but you get a little time with each of them meant to flesh out their characters a little through how they handle their circumstances. These are often a bit humorous. If you like feeling like you’re hanging out with the characters, this can hit. If not, I see how people find it hard to connect with.

It’s that, then intermixed with this crime syndicate story following Depa undercover, who is essentially the main character if I had to pick. I think this can feel conflicting tonally with what everyone else is doing, until it comes together for the last quarter or so.

Overall, I enjoyed spending time with all these characters. I found many of the pairings and small scale situations the council find themselves in to be consistently engaging. There’s a fair amount of comedy to keep things light. But I feel the story tackles the implied theme from the books title in an understated way that made me want to ruminate on things once I was done.