Children of God

Not as good as its predecessor, but still with enjoyable moments. The story got away from Ms Russell, though. There was, perhaps, too much going on to fit into one book, because most of the action gets explained later, as sort of exposition. The reader follows characters for a few chapters, only to have them disappear from the narrative, except as footnotes in the story or someone else's narrative. Suraari disappears for many chapters, only to reappear right at the end, briefly. We are told too much and not shown.

And somehow, even though I wanted to like the human characters, most of them are fairly shallowly written. I lost interest in our hero. Sofia goes off the rails. And in the end, I actually was more interested in the Rakhati characters. Like Supaari. But Ms Russell spends quite a bit of time with Supaari, Djalao, and Kitheri that I became initially interested. But then they're all sort of forgotten as she explains their history, again, rather than showing us, delving into their own stories. The last half of the book pretty much ignores them, which is a pity.