In the end... I still don't like the way Muir writes, and it makes me sad because I like her worldbuilding. I hate that I never know consistently what's happening, because when I do know what's going on I quite enjoy the writing. It gets worse, too, at climactic points in the book, where Muir will sometimes just stop identifying who's talking by the terms used in the rest of the book.

Argh. I want to love these books, and they just do not work for me.