I'm not sure how I feel about the brief interlude between Talloran and Draven. It's sweet and kind and pleasant to read, but it's more about Draven than Talloran and it doesn't feel earned. Talloran may have been through millions of years of hell, but that hell has been compressed in between enormous time skips, dialogues with Glass, introspections about gender, and white space.
In particular, the tortures described in this tale remind me of a section from Life, the Universe, and Everything where Ford Prefect mentions that he passed the time in prehistory by going mad and then regaining sanity - glib and lacking true impact. Worse, Talloran doesn't truly overcome the Voyeur - it simply loses its touch. The romance doesn't feel like an interlude that belongs in the story - it feels like an interlude that belongs to something else entirely.
But I'm charmed by the brief romance as well as Talloran's acceptance of his situation nonetheless.
