This book handles some very heavy topics in a surprisingly light manner. I started this book on probably the worst possible day, the day after the 2024 election results, and thought maybe reading about an extremely woman-phobic society would not be a good idea. But the book was so fast-paced, and as soon as Ethan stepped outside his world and had unpleasant experiences solely from the men he encountered, while being constantly rescued by a woman, I saw where Bujold was going.
I do think there was a missed opportunity for some more dramatic character development and thicker plots touching on the messages here. I could read 500 more pages about Ethan's adventures outside Athos because it sets up an incredibly interesting character dilemma. But, from the perspective of this book being a fun and entertaining read, it scores highly from me.

The worldbuilding in this novel (the new stuff at least) leads to a lot of things I feel very ...complicated about. This novel does not do any work to... Simplify the feelings of the reader. I respect that choice of the author. The big swings the author made, were pretty wild in the greater context, but I feel like we're not engaging with the ramifications of what the author is introducing enough (I felt that way for Cetaganda and this book at least). I don't think that counts against it, but does make me wonder how the events in this book may ripple into other stories in this setting. Maybe I'll get to see those ramifications later. I'll certainly read more.

Pretty good little adventure. If you like other Vorkosigan books it's worth reading this, even though Miles doesn't appear.