SPOILER WARNING
Ok, I've planned to post this for, I think, at least a year or so, but somehow never got around to it. It's kind of a partial review plus comments on the book.
LAST SPOILER WARNING
First of all congratulations on doing something of which I'm not sure if anyone else has ever done it- that is, creating an interstellar exploration/partly space opera setting that leaves Relativity intact but still has interesting interstellar exploration and politics. Really, has anyone done that before?
Minor criticism: At first, I thought it was implausible that the Morgan got so far without getting caught; then I thought it was strange that s/he didn't suspect that things were going too well.
The Frozener was a nice little anecdote, but it would have been nice if there'd been more to do for/with him.
I think I know what's going on on Maraille, and I guess if I could figure it out, some other readers have, too. Nice to think that we might see more of it in future novels!
The Dzebyet are nice.
Some readers might find the Ogorodé's submissiveness offensive, but I'd say it makes sense if you assume that their main concern is not with individual survival or what we might call dignity, but simply with the survival of their species as a whole. By that standard, their sory would be a spectacular success. And their strict refusal to improve their own situation might be based on a fear hat if they ever rise too much, someone else might take their place at the bottom, leaving them redundant. If so, that would be a plausible fear- after all, something similar arguably happened to parts of the Western working class.
I like Inky.
I like the portrayal of Beloman, too.
I'm still not completely convinced by your take on AIs. I've got the impression that you forget that, if something is possible, it's enough if someone sees a reason to do it, even if you don't. Im pretty sure that, if lifelike androids or other human-level AIs were practically possible, there'd be some of those as toys or status symbols for the rich even if there's no other use for them.
I'm a bit surprised that the stuff from the Incatena pages didn't get included as appendices.
All in all, quite nice, and I'm looking forward to more installments, if not soon, then at least a while later!