I did like this AU, but it wasn't one of my favorites. That wasn't, however, due to the characterization. Like others who've commented, I thought John's characterization was very different from the John of Atlantis, but it wasn't a bad thing; I had to get used to it and once I did, I liked it and I could see how it happened. How a non-military John might have turned out a little differently.

The subject matter was a little too rough for me. I don't deal well with things like the case John was working on and it got rather graphic, IMHO, too much for me to be able to reread it again. But that's just my personal bias and I thought the rest of the story was well done.