maaan. there was so much I'd forgotten about Essen's introduction by the time I was most of the way through, let alone before I clicked that 'she' was all three characters and could start stringing it together (I didn't figure that out until it was explicitly spelled out, too). That bit about her not being a 'great' teacher is a fucking awesome touch, in retrospect, (and god, that passing mention of it being Jija who wanted kids, not her, holy cow). You're 100% right about the bracketing of Uche and Coru, oh my god.

I also wanted a whole (sub-book? short story? ... okay, possibly going to nominate this for Yuletide. Woe betide the poor writer who gets me being all "I just want their complicated threesome, damn the earthbending!" Heh) a whole lot more about their relationship, and their child. I mean, I get that at that point she was basically filling in the blank spots to hurtle us to the present-time in the narrative, but wahhhh, want moar! Um, that was a long aside.

I don't really have time to go back and reread, not before the Hugos are done, anyhow, but I 'm thinking that it'll be a gift to myself to curl up and indulge over the Christmas holidays, maybe. I need time to let it all settle! :)