Stars

less magical realism than the first book, plus the plot is far more thrilling. the biological warfare present here is not often seen in novels, and it's been an interesting topic to read about. we see lots of characters from EO and Ascendent return; relationships form and break and strengthen under this new pressure. the ending is pretty open, but i don't see another spinoff (and i don't think there'll be one since this book came out in 2019 and the author has published loads of books since), which is kind of sad. this is honestly one of the few books i wish had more pages...

good prose good plot good characters though. i probably won't reread because this whole universe is very emotional and intense...but i'll check out the author's other books.