There was a scene when Gwen rushed out of infirmary to see Capt Ransom jump off the ship. I had a moment of wait which girl came out again? Other than external characteristics, size, weaponry, etc... There are a few scenes I felt they'd acted exactly the same way. Like running after Benedict to the burning temple. There are personality differences of course, but a lot of similarities like strong-willed, bravery, sense of honor, strong desire to help others. Folly is totally different. I was a little drunk and didn't think it through carefully.
Second point was just my personal opinion. But because silkweavers are so similar to vord. I keep drawing comparison between Cinder Spire systems with Alera systems, which were much more epic.
Again, I loved the ship chapters a lot, by far my favorite sections of the book. I firmly believe there is no reason to create anything less than battlecruiser, other than scouting concerns, which you can do with tiny ships on one trim crystal probably. Ithaca had more firepower and toughness than three heavy cruisers combined. The fact that it chased down Predator was ridiculous. I can buy the great straight line speed, but it took no discount on maneuverability. Image US Navy has battleships that can turn and accelerate like a small frigate. Why would US Navy split the resource it takes to build one battleship into three smaller ships? Especially in engagement, USS Ithaca can just shrug off fire from the three smaller ships and annihilate 1/3 of enemy strength in the opening moments.
If you draw parallel to WWII or pervious navy conflicts, you never split your navy into different locations. Splitting your 30 ships into different battle groups is just throwing them to easy destruction if they run into enemy concentrated navy group.
