A surprisingly sweet and heart-warming read, given the plot's heavy reliance on rape and pain. Lots and lots of pain. Whooee. Caz out-agonizes most other protagonists put together: he spends about 80% of the book simultaneously dying and being eaten alive by a vengeful spirit. And no, these aren't the standard novelistic injuries where the fight continues with the protagonist apparently impervious to pain due to narrative convenience adrenaline. Caz hurts. A lot. Emotionally and physically. Enough that (most of the time) he can't keep on as though nothing has happened. Other than Caz, I found most of the characters far too flawed to be particularly likeable, although this is possibly because most of them are not only the cause of their own problems, but are also tend to treat Caz badly. I tend to avoid reading about relentless suffering, so this wasn't really my type of book, but poor Caz...every time the world dealt him another punch in the gut, my heart re-melted. 
 To me, one of the highlights was the incredibly well-imagined religion of the world and Bujold's ability to capture and convey the wonder and mystery of the gods. She creates a five-member pantheon: Father, Mother, Daughter, Son, and the ever-ambiguous yet ultimately necessary Bastard. Her world, with its practical take on saints and the fascinating way in which the gods could touch mortals while leaving them with free will, left me with a lot to think about. Seems like Bujold, bored with her areligious Vorkosigans and the far too lucky Miles, released a veritable flood of miracles, gods, and submissive agony. 
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 I know I'm oversensitive to the use of rape in stories, but for one thing, I think it's a lazy way to villify a character, and for another, I think it's actually quite hard to write well. Unlike a murder, with a rape, the victim is present, and the author has to be quite empathetic and knowledgeable to avoid a totally coarse, insensitive, flat, and inaccurate portrayal of the state of mind of the victim. In this story, Bujold, who actually victim-blamed in The Warrior's Apprentice, epically fails in sensitivity, seriously overuses this to clearly delineate the Bad Guys, throws in a bit for Insta-Character Depth, and then tops it off with rape and murder of a child apparently just for a bit of sensation. Rape scenes: 
 -Danni's/ Caz's experience in the gallows (InstaBackstoryDrama) 
 -Sara raped by the brothers (InstaVillains) 
 -Threats of rape to Iselle (InstaVillains)--also wildly improbable and ridiculously coarse: "I said, Orico would never let you rape his sister. He said, why not? He let us rape his wife...he said he would roger me till he'd planted his fruit in my womb, and when I was ripe to bursting, I'd hang on him as husband hard enough. He said my belly would grow very big indeed, because I am short." (BTW, this is when I got disgusted with the book's repulsive use of rape.) 
 -Caz/ Dondo dreaming about raping Beatriz and Iselle (InstaDrama/ just plain yuuck) 
 -Totally gratuitous rape of random villagers, including a 5-yo-boy (InstaDrama/ sensationalism) 
 Seriously, that is TOO MUCH RAPE FOR ONE BOOK. YUCK. 
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 Actual review when I have a spare moment.