im glad it wasn't just me who didn't like the characters
but i didn't find it that challenging, just annoying. but then, for me, i am a character reader. if they don't interest me, the plot doens't. and other than pargon, no one interested me.
ok i could find kennit interesting. a lot of stuff went on for him that made him tragtic, which helps. and i felt bad for kyle, being so unable to understand or adapt to anything, but overall, it wasn't enough because, for me, the main characters were SO selfish and boring and irratating it just didn't work as a novel to make me care.
serilla, yeah, in a way her story did end up rather short. someone told me the whole cabin/ship affair was just to set her up as paranoid and effect the way she behaved on land, which was fair enough, but i diodn't see her affairs on land as really being that important to anything in the longrun for her to be in anyway neccessary. other than to show how vile teh satrap was.