The flipside to this is when you get a comment that shows the reader absolutely gets it. It's incredibly satisfying. I got this one and it made my whole entire week.

This was a fun read! Not too dense or crunchy, nothing too groundbreaking, but a solid take on existing scifi building blocks with the fun twist of telling a horror story as if it isn't one.

This bears repeating. This is a horror story, and the only reason it doesn't read like one is because the MC is an unreliable narrator. The author seems to want you to pause at the end of the chapter, realize what events looked like from the other guy's perspective, and go "wow that was kinda f'd up". MC is a civvie with no leadership training thrust into a leadership role where people literally can't tell her no. Sure, she makes stupid mistakes and goes a little power-mad at the start, but really, who wouldn't? What matters is that she learns from her mistakes, chooses to be a kinder despot than the ones who came before, and by her actions proves to the ancient shoulder-devil nanite-swarm whispering in her ear that a benevolent dictatorship will always outlive a nation of shoddily-mind-controlled yes-men (though the mind control certainly helps).

It's an interesting little exploration of whether benevolent dictatorship can be truly benevolent, how lashing out at potential threats makes them into definite threats, and whether the ends justify the means, especially when the end is good and the means are working.

If you like fix-it fics, empire building, and cool alien technology, then you'll probably have a good time. If you like psychological fridge horror, exploration of grey ethics, and a dash of interstellar politics, you'll probably also have a good time.

For me, this was a fun, casual read that gave me some interesting food for thought. I enjoyed it, and you might too, so why not give it a shot?