Interesting, I thought it would have been as good an intro as RS itself to the universe. It certainly puts Ana Khouri in perspective.
Agree on Chasm City. The rest of RS has a lot of good and bad. I think the Prefect is his worst.
Outside of RS, I also liked House of Sun a lot.
That's an interesting take, as I rather enjoy The Prefect and rate Chasm City as one of his more "eh" books.
I guess I'm weird.
You are not weird. A lot of people think it is the best RS book. Different people value different things .. differently. Personally I can't go past the bad writing in The Prefect, but world building is still top notch as the rest of RS.