Edit 17 May 2015; 3 stars 
 World building makes more sense now and its in fact quite incredible. I am not too bothered by the gender thing as its quite irrelevant to most part of the plot. The plot as such doesn't rely on the character being a man or a woman unlike how gender fluidity is dealt in Mirror Empire. It was much easier to read this second time around as I already knew what was going on. Half of the characters are all devices just for the protagonist to operate on. Its very hard to care for them in the way their existence is useful only for plot. 
 I do however want to know what's going to happen to this world. 
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 I like the setting, the language and the literary constructs used throughout the novel. But in the end I didn't connect to the characters or cared much about them. It takes a while to get over the gender conflicts, our own internal bias in seeing society dissected by gender roles (and mortification that comes with it. I felt appalled at my own thought process in couple of instances). All those aspects aside, it was still hard to get along with the narration even when it changed from character to character who carried same perspective. Its interesting, no doubt, but I couldn't go along with the characters or root for someone. This book is something you should read without any distractions and give your complete attention. I enjoyed the novel for the way it was written than so much for the story or the characters. Hopefully the next book in the series will get easier because of this exercise! I am looking forward to the next book in the series primarily for the world setting, social constructs and the interaction between people / AI / characters.