Review: First book is better, needs to return to sci-fi focus for future titles
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 17, 2013
This book was not as good as the first in the series. The main reason for this is that the author seems to forget he is supposed to be writing sci-fi, and instead uses too much of the book to express his political ideas both overtly (frequently in the form of dialogue between characters) and more subtly, in the characterization of various societies and the conditions in them under different forms of government.This is all well and fine, if the book were filed under politics, but it is supposed to be a science fiction novel. There is ostensibly a futuristic world in which this novel takes place, but we don't see much of it. Most of the novel could have been set in modern times as it turns into a fairly formulaic detective / rescue-the-woman-in-distress adventure novel, where the heroes are always right and the author's ideas about society always produce optimum results.The first book was very good, and the author should attempt to write more in that style than the approach he takes here. There is simply too much digression (the first quarter of the book involves a (in this title) undeveloped side mission in which the protagonists rescue a girl from some thugs which has nothing to do with the main story which picks up again several chapters later).My recommendation is more sci-fi, less formula, much less political preaching, and more focus on the primary plot, as was the case in the first book. There is potential for very good writing here if done correctly.