Fantastic and very exciting story. It certainly had a few icky parts, and I wouldn't recommend it without content warnings for grotesque and unnecessary torture scenes, but otherwise the story was excellent. The narrative was coherent, overall, and the story wrapped up nicely. The setting was particularly interesting, especially with its focus of galactic-scale society in the absence of faster than light travel- something I found particularly exciting. In an attempt to cover a variety of settings and concepts, various plot elements and focal points of mystery did seem a bit contrived at times, but it was a necessary sacrifice needed to maintain an extraordinary and engaging theater.