A truly excellent read. It is better paced, structured, and executed than the previous entry in the series. David Brin writes a compelling tale with great skill, one that touches many important themes.

From warfare to colonization, from biology to space exploration, from relationships to geopolitics, all these mesh together in a truly engrossing story that I had a lot of fun reading through. All these echo real life situations, as do the best science fiction novels.

All the characters are very well developed, and serve their purpose admirably. Brin even manages to insert a fair dose of humour to make the whole thing easier to digest without ever becoming silly, which is quite a feat.

All in all, I highly recommend this book and I am looking forward to reading the second trilogy.