Review: A Successful Sequel
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 23, 2013
…. I have just finished reading ‘The Cold Steel Mind’.  It is a worthy and imaginative sequel to ‘Steel Beneath the Skin’.  Aneka Jansen, kidnapped by the alien Xinti in 2011 and reanimated in an android body twelve-hundred years later, has become an accepted member of the crew of the archaeological research ship Garnet Hyde.  They have returned to the wreck of the Agroa Gar, the Xinti ship on which the android body into which her consciousness was downloaded was found in stasis.  There are secrets to be had on the Agroa Gar, some of which someone doesn’t seem to want known.  But, there may be more players in this game than the crew of Garnet Hyde even imagine……. I found this book just as much fun to read as the first.  There is a little less direct action and a little more characterization and world building in this adventure and I found it a nice balance that held my attention from beginning to end.  Once again, I could not put it down.  The sex scenes that some complained about in the first book are here too, but dialed back a bit as a more complicated plot takes over.  Once again, the sex is treated with a generally light (if graphic), and humorous hand with the exception of the actions of one dark character who eventually draws Aneka’s righteous ire.  Again, good job, Niall.  I am looking forward to the next one.  This is shaping up to be a memorable series.