I’m starting to think the problem is me. I struggled to get into this one for about 100+ pages. It picked up a bit with the Teek islands and then… dropped again into a lot of back and forth between the jaguar, the firebird and the crow. (Deliberately being obtuse so there are no accidental spoilers.) I switched to audio to see if I could get the vibe and flow back. 

Ok, the audiobook helped. But… everyone feels like they’ve been body snatched. The Teek who are wary of any and all outsiders are throwing a feast for multiple ships arriving they didn’t plan on. (It did not end well.) Xiala took no shit and now she’s timid and quiet. Iktan is making mistakes, almost fatal ones. Serapio is now okay with human sacrifices just to further his reign. The energy and fire from the first book is gone. Everyone is going through the motions and it’s coming across on the page. This was not the book 3 I was expecting. Maybe I’ll try again later but it’s a DNF right now at 55%.