Another quick, fun read of science fiction with plenty of snark, meta-references, and intelligent humor to keep the story going.
I liked the first book as it was kind of an origin story to the world (universe?) that the author built, and this second book continues the trilogy into a wider area. The story is a bit on the brief side, with a surprising amount of the scheming and sneaking of those who want power.
Scalzi does a great job with the characters that he has dreamed up – they are pleasantly kind, clever, villainous, brave, and each works towards their comeuppance or their payoff moment. The stories build towards those moments, and when they come they are very satisfying. If I have any complaint here is that it is hard to get a sense of the scale of this universe – we spend time only with the main players and we don’t know about all the things elsewhere in the world. What is it like to be a regular person living in these places? In this series we see only the elite.
I like reading this series – one of these days when the library has it available I’ll check out the last one.
Next I’m reading The Westing Game, by Ellen Raskin.
