The sequel to Children of time, it's an outstanding book by itself. The ordering is recommended though a patient reader could put things together without reading the prequel to this. Loved the ending, which like the first one ends on a positive optimistic note though depending on how cynical one is that could be open for interpretation.
The fourth quarter felt tiring but that's the nature of these things -- there's only so many words you can write to describe the frustrating nature of inter-species interplanetary communication without boring the reader. The the characters' desperation and frustration come through easily, to almost a fault I'd say -- the reader's motivation to keep going suffers right until the last few chapters.
The book involves FTL (faster than light travel), explores the nature of sentience and consciousness even further, including an extremely scary sentient slime mold (Spoilers!) that can be convinced to uhh not be evil by just...talking to it, question mark.
Loved it, loved how it ended and setup the third book of the series. I'd probably not read it again (unlike the discworld books which I've read like 10+ times) because it's a bit too much info-load wise, and it's not 'fun fun', just great plotting. I'd read it just for the sciencey concepts and how they interact with their societies.
Read it if you like any of the following: spiders, linguistics, cephalopods, alternative forms of sentience or science fiction in general.
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