Seikai no Senki volume 5 read:

The author of this story only writes a book every decade or so, so I was distraught to see the first half of the volume entirely consumed with preparations to evacuate the capitol in light of an oncoming overwhelmingly superior attack.

I'm sure it's all well and good to see how efficiently and rationally the Abh acted during this bad turn of events to cut their losses as much as possible, but half of a volume?  That's the equivalent of five years of waiting given this author's pace.  We waited five years for this?

The second half of the volume is much more interesting as the losing battle actually arrives.  As expected, all of the Abh fight bravely and die valiantly, inflicting outsized losses on the enemy.  Lafiel and her little brother Duhier manage to escape which is always nice, but the Empress of the Abh went down with the rearguard fleet.  Since that was Lafiel's grandmother, she is now only one step away from the throne, crown princess.

There isn't much room for personal decision making in a rigid hierarchy in the middle of war.  So there isn't much chance at characterization when all Lafiel and Jinto do is follow orders in obvious situations like 'get out of town while the getting's good.'  They end up more like observers of the course of the war than characters.  Points-of-view, they're called.

Hopefully volume 6 has the Abh in a more advantageous war footing and Lafiel more able to exercise her own judgment, which would make tracking what she is doing more worthwhile.  I'm not even sure if Hiroyuki Morioka will ever finish a volume 7, so this might be the last we ever hear from this universe.  I'd like it at least to leave off with an optimistic note.  As great as this writer is, and taking into account all the health problems he's had, I still despise any author who leaves their work unfinished.  If you know you have health problems regularly all the more reason to finish up your work and wrap a bow around it instead of dragging things out with endless new plot complications.  There's never an excuse to leave your readers hanging.  Present a finished work in a reasonable amount of time or never start it in the first place.

No one says it's okay to sell only the front half of the car because the car manufacturer has health problems.  The front half of a car is worthless and should never be put on sale.  No one wants to buy a house with only two walls constructed because the constructors had health problems.  A house is only a house once all four walls have been finished.  I'm not interested in excuses, I just want results.