This was a little better than the first volume, but I'm still deeply unconvinced by the worldbuilding. And I confess that I find the characters irritating - the plot here seems to rely on the fact that all of them lie to each other all the time and never learn not to do so. Candor may be useless, but at this point I'm rooting for them simply because they've the decency to complicate things by being honest instead of otherwise.

I'm reading this series because it's such a juggernaut and I want to be informed, but I'm just not feeling it, I'm afraid.