The start was somewhat confusing: normally I don't mind an in medias res beginning but for some reason this time it annoyed me more than it interested me. Soon though, the story started proper and things fell in place. It's an interesting world and I am probably going to read more novels in the Xeelee sequence but I wish the characters were a bit more rounded, a bit more interesting. They seemed formed by the gravity in that nebula: as flat as possible.

I know, gravity forces matter into spheres...