Headcanon: Bujold discovered that her vaguely-somewhat-Russian scifi setting allowed her to tell a Chernobyl Baba Yaga story, and then she just had to do it. Sometimes the prompt is stronger than the story.
That’s mean: The novella provides a good backdrop for the books, showing Ekaterin being very much Lady Vorkosigan, with fluff about the kids on the side, and horror about other kids front and center. Didn’t do much for me, but still time spent well.
