"The creature didn't really have time to have a full sense of its own existence before it didn't have an existence anymore."

I think this, taken from the opening chapter, sums up this entire novel, really.

"Calhoun, damn him, could afford to be flamboyant, daring, and heroic."

It's odd, because Calhoun's not all that heroic at all here. he just sits there, in command, using his mind now and then and not doing much of anything else. as Calhoun was always a very physical player in things, this adds something of a back-seat feel.

"if you marry him and he still doesn't know you're alive, then you have bigger problems than I could possibly solve."

Most of this book is taken up with relationship advice or discussions thereof. Morgan's entry is interesting but underused, the threat to the ship is something of a holdover from the first four titles and the race of beings that appear simply to put Calhoun in his place are little short of Deus Ex Machina with the deus perhaps converted to a nihil.

"Entering a realm that makes no sense? My dear Lieutenant, the technical
term for that is 'birth."

Still, we've got a few more characters, a heads-up on a new race of beings and a baby (or two) on the way. Things might just liven up yet.