Wow, I just spent a few minutes dipping into this at random thanks to your review, and yeah! It really does seem fun. This line stood out to me, just before the line about a small agent being anybody's whore:

"Things are back to normal--and they're never fair." --But I could tell from your review and from what I was seeing that the characters really take them in stride, and I think I really like the Maisie character--she does seem genuinely sweet.

I liked your description of Bongo Herbert's unselfconscious opportunism: "innocently climbing the rungs of his benefactors with never a look back or down" --heh!