My final problem, with both books, is that there is a lack of awe in the face of everything going on. In the first book, Wheeler represented the first proof of alien life outside of our solar system. This was treated more like a plot point than anything overwhelming. This trend continues here. Jack and his cohorts are zipping around the universe, doing amazing and giant things.
Nobody stops to even appreciate the view.
Perhaps one could argue that these people are constantly living on the edge, afraid of dying within the next few minutes. But I would've liked for this concern to be assuaged by just a scene or two of a taste of amazement by any of our characters. A Signal Shattered is arguably better than its predecessor, Signal to Noise , largely due to its leap into a wild story of galactic proportions. Still it suffers from problems that were present in the earlier novel, which prevents me from giving it a thumbs-up. Nonetheless, I credit Mr. Nylund for his imagination.