Review: Good story though unbalanced in some ways
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 04 5, 2013
Overall I liked this read.  Since there was groundwork to build from in the first book, I didn't feel as detached as I did in reading the first one.  The only pieces that seem solid though are the plot and world building.  There is a fairly large cast of characters, though I would say nearly all of them are paper thin.  If I were to write a character summary on each of them, nobody would have more than half a paragraph I bet.  The few characters that do have some history in the book tend to be generalized and vague.  Political and some social interactions seem slightly lacking, but personal interactions are very shallow in my opinion.  I don't want to spoil anything, though one of the main characters has something terrible happen to them early on, and the character it affects doesn't give it a second thought again until it comes up as a plot point late in the book.  There is one potential "romance" that I found kind of baffling, one brief personal and awkward scene, between one of the heroes and heroines.  Months later at the end they're in love.  I'm not saying that love can't happen in a similar fashion, but usually there's some thoughts and interactions between people to get to that point.Proofreading and grammar is a bit better in this book, though the random capitalization of words is still there along with assorted issues that would be caught by a careful and patient eye.The book is really long too. Between this and the first one, I'd say it would be the makings of a solid trilogy.  Fleshed out with some character driven scenes and additional back story to the major players, it would have worked out well that way.  On the other hand, there's still plenty of fertile ground in this sci-fi universe to bring that all in with new installments in this series.