Well, forget what I said last time about reading this later in the summer. I decided to go ahead to do it now. No regrets from me. Similar to the previous Reynolds novella that I rated as a three star, this one was fine, I enjoyed it, but it didn't quite move me in the mind-blowing fashion I would hope to get from a Reynolds story. He is, after all, one of the biggest super amazing mind stretching writers working today. 
 Instead, I got a story about a lady on a ship full of criminals and a galaxy-spanning civilization destroyed while she was sleeping. So, you know, ho-hum. 
 I wanted to like it more than I actually did. It worked for me as a story, but the dialog was way too formal and the promise of the revenge tale was subverted a bit, not poorly, but done so in a way that left me feeling a bit like I got a morality tale instead. 
 So, yeah, I liked it. I'd even dare say you'd probably like it too, as long as you know that your getting a SF mystery first and foremost, not action or even a character piece. The larger 'civilization has fallen' issue brought up in the text is only a backdrop that this small story is being told against, so there isn't going to be any epic resolution to the larger 'universe is messed up' stuff that it is going on. 
 Think of it like a nuclear war just happened and a bus full of people are trying to get their radio to work. You know that the nuclear war happened, but the story is really about that busted radio. It's a good story, just no the one I wanted to read. 
 Whatever, I don't know. Dr Reynolds is still the man. Can't wait to read the next thing he puts out. Even if I do give it another middling review.