I kind of felt the same way—there was a lot happening here, and I wasn't super familiar with the main characters. That said, I still really enjoyed the read, since there were snippets like:
But upon further review, he came to realize just how much engineering went into this cell. SRA mounted underneath the floor. Full camera coverage. Concrete inlaid with anti-pretty-much-everything sigils. Fentanyl gas dispenser in the ceiling. VX gas dispenser next to that.
I headcanon the Foundation as super competent and seeing that nod to the details involved in containment engineering sold the setting for me.
And plus the occasional gem in the dialogue, like:
"I uh, don't have anything. Just the clothes on my back."
"Then the wedding cannot continue!"
That sort of atypical conversation played entirely straight made me grin. I'll have to add Anoati to my "read this next" list.
