Honestly this feels like more of a set up to its sequal, Fair Trade as it mostly built up the scene that will be paramount for what is to come.
But there is still enough to read and enjoy. It is a good survival story how 50 people are wrongfully punished for a character whose only crime was just being born. The stress of these geroo slavery under the Krakun is present now on how “dehumanizing” their slave masters can be. From deadly punishment to forced starvation. These people live like rat bound to clean the apartment for an uncaring lizard.
If that wasn’t enough, this is a good story on how societies can fall apart as soon as the “noble and kind leader” gets killed and a tyrant takes is place and the one person who sees the warning signs is slowly placing a target on himself.