The lack of any conflict is what I really noticed -- even the later books tend to have some kind of external crisis, but here there was really nothing at all. Like you, I kept looking out for it; there was a moment when they commented that the Cetegandans could actually just destroy them, whenever they want, and then everyone just kind of shrugged and moved on.

I agree about the fanficcy feeling. For me its the sense that the characters can't actually fail, and that the author's desire for them to be happy overrides the needs of the story. It ends up reading as very... smug, I guess.

One of the things that I wanted from the book was to get a sense of life on Sergyar -- but yes, I think I wanted to see Cordelia and Aral doing that together. I'm also interested in Cordelia's post-Aral life, but I wanted that to be different, somehow. It all seemed very thin.