Eyes of the Void

Oof, this was a slog and I considered quitting a few times. I finally got into the groove about 2/3 of the way through though and enjoyed the rest of the story. I liked the first one well enough, why not this?

I think mostly because all the universe building I liked in the first book just sort of.. sat there in this sequel. Learning for the first time about the Hivers and the Partheni and the destruction of Earth and all was exciting and fun, a lot of new ideas. I was thrilled by the great existential danger of the Architects, the big reveal at the end of the first book about their nature.

But this second book just reiterates all that. There's not much new depth to the various space factions. We finally learn one minor new fact about the Architects. Mostly it's just using the same characters and setting to tell new two-fisted tales of space opera excitement. Which honestly seemed tedious to me. I really don't care about the characters in particular, except maybe Idris.

I wonder if I'll bother with the third book. I probably should, but then I sort of feel a one paragraph summary of the conclusion of all the drama about the Architects would probably satisfy my desire to know more.